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NEW METHOD, 



WHICH TEACHES HOW TO MAKE 



VEGETABLE MANURE, 



BY A COURSE OF HIGH FEKMENTATION, IN FIFTEEN DAYS, WITHOUT CATTLE, AS GOOD 
AND MORE DURABLE THAN FARM MANURE : 



TO APPROPRIATE IT TO THE NATURE OP SOILS AND FAMILIES OF PLANTS, 



AND WITH 



GREAT ECONOMY; 



IT FURTHER SHOWS 



HOW TO PREPARE 



VEGETABLE AND MINERAL COMPOSTS, 



CONTAINS VARIOUS PROCESSES, 



1st — To augment and ameliorate the Manure of a Farm: 

2d — To prepare a Fertilizing Liquid for Irrigation: 

3d — To convert into Manure the Lees and Residues of Distilleries and Manufactories: and 

4th — To revive Garden Beds without changing the Litter. 



BY GEORGE BOMMER. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 



... ..-f^ 



Sh- 



^NEW YORK: 
STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & SAVAGE, 13 CHAMBERS ST. 

1845. 



COPYRIGHT SECURED ACCORDING TO LAW. 



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^"^ 









VALmiTY OF BOMIER'S PATENT. 



As the re-publication of Mr. Ellsworth's letter on the 
subject of the Patent attached to Bommer's Method has 
been occasionally repeated, and is liable, without further 
explanation, to mislead the public mind, it is a debt of 
justice due to the cause of truth, to give some further exhi- 
bition of the facts in the case. 

Some have inferred from reading that letter, that Mr. 
Bommer has never been the proprietor of the Patent per- 
taining to his Method, while others who have read it with / . 
more attention, have inferred that he has been merely the ^^ 
proprietor of the Patent for a part of the States by assign- )/ / (Z' > 
ment, and furthermore, that the improvements on which the /^or^-, t7, 
American Patent is predicated, are of trifling iraportancej ^ 
and that Bommer's Method contains no essential advanta- i /i/f^Azce- 
ges over JaufFret's. I design to show that all these various 
opinions are erroneous. 

It is not disputed but what the American Patent was first 
secured by Baer and Gouliart, and that only a part of the , 
States v.'ere immediately transferred to Mr. Bommer by as- 
signment, in anticipation of the Patent befoi'eit was execu- 
ted, yet subsequently ail the remaining States and Terri- 
tories were also assigned to him and duly recorded at the 
Patent Office. The book which is commonly termed Bom- 
mer's Method, which contains a full illustration of the 
subject and all necessary instructions as to the practical 
use of the system was written by Mr. Bommer in French, ^ri— /cr^ 

and was translated at considerable expense, and the copy- _->^ 

right secured to himself. It requires considerable sagacity 
to perceive how that the same Method when presented by 
Mr. Bommer in the month of May should be considered so 
deficient in novelty as to require the rejection of his appli- 
cation, and that when the same thing was afterwards offered 
by Baer and Gouliart in the month of June, it should become 
sufficiently novel to secure the Patent. I know of only one 
rational exposition of this matter. Mr. Ellsworth was per- 
sonally prejudiced against Mr. Bommer, and it was doubt- 
less this circumstance, more than the want of novelty, that 



produced the rejection of his first application, and it is pre- 
sumable that if it had not been for the development of the 
fact that Mr. Bommer was still interested in the Patent 
secured by Baer and Gouliart, that the public would never 
been favored with Mr. Ellsworth's special services in a de- 
tailed account of Jauffret's French Methoc}, with an evident 
design to embarrass Mr. Bommer in his business. The con- 
stitueld authorities of the Patent Office, having once ad- 
mitted that there were sufficient advantages in the improve- 
ments presented by Baer and Gouliart to justify a patent, 
it illy becomes a public officer in the same department to 
adopt any measures calculated to hazard the privileges 
which by his official acts he is bound to protect. 

Whatever opinion may be entertained by Mr. Ellsworth 
or others who merely speculate upon the theory, practical 
results have demonstrated that the peculiarities which 
distinguish Bommer's Method from Jauffret's are so essen- 
tial to its success that without them the Method is utterly 
useless- 

Too much dependence ought not to be placed on the spe- 
cifications of the patent in forming an estimate of its cha- 
racter, since these are the mere skeletons of the system, 
and are commonly of but little value without the method 
itself, in which its various provisions are amplified and 
•rendered practically useful. Individuals may have been 
emboldened to attempt an infringement upon the patent by 
misrepresentations of its claims, but they have generally 
lost more for tlie want of the ample details contained in 
Bommer's Method, than they have gained by their unwar- 
rantable endeavors to secure it by stealth. The Editors of 
the Albany Cultivator, in their preface to Mr. Ellsworth's 
letter, remark: " We know that the method used by him, 
(Bommer) and described in the pamphlet, a copy of which 
is furnished every purchaser of a right, will make manure 
in any quantity, and of the best quality, for almost every 
kind of cultivated crop. Of the French method, as de- 
scribed in the specifications, we are not competent to judge, 
having never witnessed its effects ; we- should, however, 
prefer purchasing Mr. Bommer's book, in which the whole 
process is detailed." The correctness of their opinion is 
sustained by the fact that Mr. Bommer's improvements 
save an immense amount of labor, which, in this country 
particularly, is of primary importance. Thousands of 






3 

testimonials may be produced from the most unquestiona^ 
ble authorities, in confirmation of the economy and utili- 
ty of those features of Bommer's method, which distin- 
guish it from Jauffret's, and prove its superiority to this 
and every other system, and consequently to establish the 
validity of the patent predicated on these improvements. 
Notwithstanding all the efforts which have been put forth 
from time to time to disparage this most important patented 
improvement, it is rapidly rising in public estimation, and. 
its use is becoming more extensive than at any former pe- 
riod, and it is evidently destined to save millions of wealth 
for our country, by increasing the fertility of the soil, and 
the products of our farms. With these facts in view, we 
can have no apprehensions of any serious detriment to its 
success, from an impartial investisration of truth. 

ELI BARNETT, Proprietor. , . /> 

'^a en me 



UTILITY OF BOMMER'S METHOD. 

I HAVE carefully investigated Bommer's Patent Method 
of making manure, in all its parts, and this investigation 
has resulted in my entire satisfaction, that it is a cheap, 
practical, and desirable method of furnishing manure to 
the farmer. FREDERICK HALBROOK. 

JBrallleboro, Vt., Oct. 29, 1847. 



During the three years in which I have had the use of 
Bommer's Method, I have become entirely satisfied of its 
utility and of the great benefits arising fiom an application 
of its principles. I am well convinced that the same quan- 
tity of the best barn yard manure would not beof half the 
same value upon any given quantity of land, and at the 



LEGAL OPINION. ^or^ Jf 

I hereby certify to all whom it may concern, that having examined 
the evidences of the vaJidity of the patent, known as Bommer's Method > J i^ ' 

of making manure, I am satisfied that the patent was duly execuied and ' ^^'^^^^^~ 

recorded in conformity to the laws of the United States, that the Method 
is an important accession to the interests of agriculture in this country, 
and that the improvements on which the American patent is predicated, 
are of sufficient importance to justify and sustain the same against all 
unlawful encroachments. 

E. K. FOSTER, 
Attorney at Law and Judge of Probate Court for New Haven District. 






same time that the manure made by the Bommer Method 
does not cost more than one third as much as yard manure. 
Besides this, 1 have derived benefits enough from the Method 
to pay me the cost of a dozen copies. Indeed, I vpould not 
for one hundred dollars be deprived of its use. My corn 
to which I applied rbe Bommer manure requires much less 
tilling than the other, as it is free from weeds, the fermen- 
tation having destroyed the germ of the seeds. 

ORRIN WARNER. 
North Haven, CL, Aug. 19, 1847. 

I have used Bommer's Method with entire satisfaction, 
and decidedly believe that its general adoption would essen- 
tially add to the wealth of the country, and that every 
farmer who will practice upon its principles may at small 
expense and reasonable labor, greatly increase the fertility 
and products of his farm. The manure may be made of 
almost every variety of substance that was ever employed 
for similar purposes, with far better effect than by any other 
process. A heap which I composed principally of sedge 
and sea Weed, 1 found to be well rotted in three weeks and 
converted into a good manure, sufficiently decomposed to 
be shoveled with perfect convenience. Among the nume- 
rous advantages of the JVjethod, I deem it worthy ot par- 
ticular notoriety, that in this process there is little or no 
waste of the substances employed, as the sant>e am-ount of^ 
materials decomposed by this Method, will produce a much 
larger quantity, as well as of superior quality, of manure, 
while it may be effected in a shorter tinie with less labor 
and expense than by any other mode. 

FREDERICK BURR. 

Fairfield, Ct., June 5th, 1 847. 



I have made use of Bommer's Method for the last three 
years, and having made several heaps, and tested it effect- 
ually as to its beneficial and lasting influence upon the soil, 
I consider it not only a matter of economy to pay the price 
of the Method, but I should consider one hundred dollars no 
temptation for me to be deprived of its use. 

JAMES M. COWAN. 

Dover, N. K, Oct. 12, 1847. 



Having obtained Bommer's Method last spring, I made 
a heap composed of turfs, brake hassocks, potatoe tops and 



corn stubble ; I prepared my lye and wet down my heap 
according to the Method ; 1 opened my heap when I had 
occasion for its use for the corn crop, and found it com- 
pletely decomposed. The effect on the crop is perfectly 
satisfactory, the corn being- much larger than where I used 
barn manure. And I would say to every farmer, that the 
expense of the Method is not worth naming compared with 
the advantages derived from it. 

JOHN CARLETON. 
Haverhill, Mass., Oct, 12, 1847. 



Some months since I purchased Bommer's Method with 
the right to use it, and though for the want of time I have 
not been extensively engaged in the manufacture, yet I am 
perfectly satisfied from the experiments I have tried that , / - ,/^ 

the Method is very valuable. Having on hand a lot of the 

trimmings of wool hat rims, I put up a heap of them and V X ^ 

made an alkali, (using only a part of the ingredients pre- f^orn', ty, 

scribed,) and wet the heap as directed by the Method, and , 

in a few weeks they were completely decomposed. And I ' A^^^zce^ 

have no doubt that by following the directions of the Method 
that any vegetable substance may in a very short lime be 
converted into the best of manure. ^ 

JONATHAN CROWELL. 

Haverliill, Mass., Oct. 10, 1847. 



Last spring I purchased Bommer's Method of making 
manure, and after trying the experiment 1 am satisfied that 
it is one of the greatest improvements ever made in agri- 
culture. I made a heap of the manuie in the spring before 
planting, and used it on my corn ; the effect was decidedly 
good, and I would not be deprived of the advantages of the 
Method on any account, being perfectly satisfied of the 
efficiency and utility of the system. 

EZRA B. WELCH. 

Haverhill, Mass., Oct. 15, 1847. 



This may certify that 1 have practiced manufacturing 
manure according to Mr Bommer's Method, for two years, 
and find it both convenient and profitable, and can very " 
cheerfully recommend it to others. 

ALBERT MOSELY. 
West Springfield, Oct. 9, 1847. 
1* 



;3- 



I hereby certify that I have made use of Bommef'* 
Method for making manure in the Springfield Cemetery^ 
and fiod it a very cheap manure. It is the best I have ever 
tried, and 1 think it is equally as durable as the best stable 
manure- The heap I made was composed of earth and 
leaves. 

A. MARSH, for Springfield Cemetery Corporation, 

Springfield, Mass., Oct. 27, 1847. 

I have made a pai'tial esperiment in the use of the Bom- 
mer manure, and particularly in tiie earth compost for top 
dressing, and have been greatly benefitted. From my ex- 
amination of the system and experiments, I feel confident 
that the system is a great benefit to the farmer. 

SAMUEL TIDD. 

Warrerif Mass., Aug. 20, 1847. 



i hereby certify that I have tried the Bommer Method for 
making manure, and from the efFtcts on my crops, I think 
it is much stronger than the best of stable manure. I leel 
well satisfied, so far, with its results, and could feel confi. 
dence in recommending it to others. 

DIAMOND CHANDLER. 

Long Meadow, Mass., Oct. 18, 1847. 



I hereby certify that I have used Mr. George Bommer's 
Patent Manure on my farm for the two past seasons with 
great success. I purchased the right in Dec, 1845. I fat- 
tened that winter ten cows in a stable without any floor, 
and did not clean my stable till spring, therefore the manure 
had all the strength which urin and manure can have. 
I made a pile of Bommer manure about the middle of May, 
1846, and let it lay thirty-one days. The pile consisted 
of twenty loads of earth, the balance of corn stalks, tobac- 
co stalks and poor hay, in all making twenty-five loads 
when rotten. I placed it by the side of my stable manure 
spoken of, and had I not stuck up sticks to know exactly 
where it commenced, I never should have knovvn by the 
crop. I put twenty-five loads of this manure on one acre 
of land, and I raised seventeen hundred pounds of lobacco, 
which for last season was a very large yield. This sea. 
son I have made fifty loads, and have had like success. 
The larger the pile the cheaper it can be made. I put into 






My loads of manuve seven dollars wortk of matenaW, 
I have used this manure on different soils and crops, and 
for top dressing on my mowings I think there is nothinsf 
equal to it. I put three loads of tliis manure on to one» 
fifth of an acre of land and planted it to pumpkins, and have 
raised six tons of puutipkins, some of them weighing ores' 
sixty pounds. 

TIMOTHY HARLOW ABBE. 
Enfield, Conn., Oct. 1, 1847. 

From E. B. Garfield, Esq., BerksJiire Co., Mass. 

I)kar Sir, — I can say 1 have used the Method you speak 
of (Bommer's) with perfect success since my first trial,, 
which partially failed by not having liquid enough to tho- 
roughly saturate the heap. There is no difficulty in making / 
manure, and very cheap, if a man is so situated that he ' 
can get plenty of muck or earth, straw, briars, weeds,. >/ / (^ 
leaves, in short, any and every thing you can pile together fyOrK', e^, 
for decomposition. The heap should be placed in reference , 
to the pit for the liquid, so that in saturating the heap you ' /i/'^Azce- 
will not have to carry the liquid too far. It should also.be 
so situated that you can save all the liquid that runs from 
the heap. You will find no difficulty in raising the fer- 
mentation as high as you please if you saturate your heap 
thoroughly, for on this all depends for your success. I have 
generally used about one third to one half of muck to cor« 
respond with the quantity of other materials. 
^0,1^ Respectfully, 

E. B. GARFIELD. 

Monterry, Mass, Oct. 14, 1847. 



LEGISLATIVE REPORT. 

Maryland House of Delegates, March 6, 1844. 
Beport of the Committee on Agriculture, relative to the Bommer Method 

of making manure, in obedience to an order of the House of 2%th of 

January. 

The Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred 
the order submitted by Mr. Calvert, on the ^6th of Janu- 
ary, directing them to " report to this House, whether the 
manure manufactured under the system, known as the 
Bommer process, is a valuable acquisition to the agricultu- 
rists of the State :" I beg leave to report, that through the 
politeness of Messrs. Abbett & Co., of the city of Balti- 



en 



^ 



->"' 

<i>^ 



more, tney have been favored with a copy of the new and 
enlarged edition of the Bommer Manure Method, which 
they have examined with as much attention as their time 
has permitted. 

Having no personal knowledge upon the subject, the com- 
mittee have also resorted to such other sources of informa- 
tion as have come within their reach. Taking into view 
the materials used in the preparation of the manure, the 
advantages resulting from the use that may be made of it 
in various states of decomposition to suit different crops, 
the certainty of having all obnoxious seeds destroyed by 
the high degree of heat developed during fermeatation, 
they cannot hesitate in recommending it to the attention 
of the farmers of Maryland. 

The right to use the Method, in the preparation of ma- 
nure, being secured by letters patent, nothing in relation to 
it beyond an expression of opinion, will be expected from 
the committee. They have appended hereto an' extract 
from the preface to the book, as also several other extracts 
and certificates from practical men, upon the subject. 

All of which is respectfully submitted, 

D. W. Naill, Robert Ghiseltn, 

Lyde Griffitifj Warford Mann, 

Daniel Stull, Philip PouLXKEy. 



From the Transactions of the N. Y. AgricuUural Society — 
Prize Esay on the preparation and use of Ma-nures, ly 
Willis Gaylord. 

Bommer's patent manure is compost made in a scientific 
and accurate manner, every part of the process so managed 
as to produce a perfect fermentation, without the loss of any 
of the valuable parts of the the constituents used. 



From the Pennsylvania Farmer. 
Every farmer who takes pride in clean fields, ought to 
put his stable manure through this process. The high fer- 
mentation which it attains, effectually destroys the germ of 
the trashy seeds which are so apt to be carried into the 
fields, from the barn yard. 

From the American Farmer. 
We have not the slightest doubt as to the intrinsic value 
of this Method, its power rapidly to coavert all ligneous 



and woody substances into good fertilizing manure, and 
that the process will be worth millions to the agricultural 
community of America. 

From the Democratic Banner, (Va.,) Ahington. 
BOMMER'S MANURE METHOD. 
* * * The benefits which Mr. Bommer is destined to 
confer upon the agricultural classes, will be inappreciable, 
if there be truth in the remark of Dean Swift, that "he 
who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew 
before, renders a greater service to mankind than all the 
politicians that ever lived." Our farmer readers, to v/hom 
we are particularly addressing these remarks, will discover 
upon what easy terms the valuable method of fertilizing- 
poor land can be obtained, with the privilege of applying the 
process. The amount to be paid, no man with true notions '^e/ ^ 

of economy can complain of, Jt will indeed be a matter of 
astonishment, if hereafter the tiller of the soil shall labori- ?/ / ^ 

ously continue the cultivation of " worn out lands," when / *'' ' 

the means of its immediate renovation are brought within ' " a, > ■ 

his reach. In our rides through the country we see num- ' p/f^^Zte~ 

berless "broad acres," which, under the magic touch of 
the Bommer Method, would " rejoice and blossom as the 
rose." VVe invite the general perusal of Mr. Bommer's 
advertisement, and trust that himself and those whose espe- 
cial welfare he proposes to advance, will find a due reward 
— he in the sale of his Method, and they in the purchase. 



Vrom the {Columbia) Soiiih Carolina Temperance Advocate. 
To Farmers. — Several of our subscribers have tried 
Mr. Bommer's Method of making manure, and are satisfied 
of its superiority over every other plan they have yet known 
for decomposing and converting into good rich manure, 
vegetable matter of all kinds. We hope many of our ag- 
riculturists will avail themselves of Mr. Bommer's new 
and improved edition of his Method of making manure, 
and thus improve the soil and lighten labor. 



From the Staunton {Va.) Spectator- 
Bommer's Manure Method. — The plan has been fully 
tested by many farmers in the eastern section of our State, 
and in every case where the directions were properly ob- 






10 

served, the results have proved most satisfactory. The 
cheapness and expedition with which large bodies of nia- 
iiure may be produced by this Method, render it invaluable 
to the farmer. * * * We should not feel free to speak 
thus strongly of this invention, were its merits in any 
doubt ; but having the approval of the intelligent and r-au- 
tious editor of the " Southera Planter," and of many other 
practical men of our own State and in different parts of the 
Union, we feel a confidence in it, which not only disposes 
us to wish for, but to do what we may to promote its iiitro- 
duction among us. 



From the Rahway Republican, {N. J.) 
Bommer's Manuke Method. * * * Mr, Bommer seems 
to have entered info the whole subject of farming in a way 
far more complete and philosophical than any of his pre- 
decessors, and we are truly astonished at the amount of la- 
bor and perseverance he must have expended in arriving 
at so rational and useful results. Mr. Bommer's new work 
on the subject of manures ought to be in the hands of every 
intelligent farmer throughout our country, containing, as 
it assuredly does, the best "manure method" that has yet 
been discovered or applied. Mr. Bommer is evidently a 
practical farmer, and thoroughly understands what he is 
about — a fact which will doubtless cause the book to be 
eagerly sought after by those interested in the subject of 
agriculture. 

BOMMER'S MANURE METHOD. 
Public Experiments of the Method, tested by constituted Agri- 
cultural Committees of scientific and -practical 7nen. 

From the Albany Cultivator. 
We invite attention to the annexed report of Dr. Beck, 
on Bommer's Method of making manure. From a careful 
examination of the specifications and directions furnished 
us by Mr. Bommer, as well as fi'om a personal examination 
of the process, from the forming of the heap to its opening, 
we are convinced that the Method must prove valuable, 
and the manure so prepared of the best quality. There 
are many farms on which immense quantities of coarse 
grass, thistles, sedge, flags, and other weeds, are annually 
grown, of which no use can be profitably made — all these, 



11 



and with them the large piles of straw which are heaped 
rouud many barns to cause them to decay, may by this 
Method be expeditiously and cheaply converted into the 
best of manure — the cost of the materials which the farmer 
Avill have to purchase, being only from fifteen to twenty 
cents per cord, and the labor only such as is necessary to 
form a compost heap of any kind. 

Report on Bommer's Method of making Vegetable Manure hy 
Fermentation. 

At the request of Mr. Bommer, the undersigned were 
present on the 14lh of September, at the preparation or the 
materials used by him for making the above manure. As 
Mr. Bommer's process is patented, it will not of course be 
expected that the committee can go into details farther 
than what he himself makes public. They have, however, 
no hesitation in stating that the materials mentioned in his 
specification were all used ; that the experiment was in 
every respect fairly made ; and that the whole is evidently 
conducted on the most approved chemical principles. 

Two heaps were prepared ; the first made of dry mate- 
rials, principally straw of various grains, and probably 
weighing about 1000 lbs. ; the second was composed of 
ligneous vegetables, dry and green — such as cornstalks, po- 
tatoe stems, thistles, and various other weeds. 'I his weigh- 
ed probably about 450 lbs., and was propped against the 
first heap. 

The fermentation was discontinued, September 28, when 
the heaps were opened for exhibition. The committee ex- 
amined them on the 8th of October, and are quite satisfied 
that the result is a satisfactory one. The heap formed of 
1,000 lbs. dry straw was found to contain by measurement, 
225 solid feet; or one cord and three-quarters, estimated to 
weigh 4, ('00 lbs. The material furnished must prove a 
valuable manure ; and the more so as it employs many ar- 
ticles now worthless or deleterious. In all matters of this 
nature ex; erience is of course worth more than mere the- 
ory ; but it will be a matter of great disappointment if a 
process, combining as this does an application of the most 
correct chemical principles, with the employment of the 
most efficient agents, does not in due lime become a favorite 
with the farmer. 

T. R. BECK, Chairman. 



lea en ^^e 




^ .:> 






13 



Facts which ought to be known. 

I. A thorough acquaintance with Bommer's Method, the- 
oretically and practically, constitutes a mine of wealth to 
the farmer. 

II. Persons v/ho merely consult the specifications of the 
patent or table of ingredients specified in the Method with- 
out a thorough investigation of the Method itself, are incom- 
petent to judge correctly of its merits, because Bommer's 
improvement^-, illustrations, amplifications, substitutes, de;c., 
are indispensible to render the system economical and 
useful. 

III. The Method prescribes substitutes for such ingredi- 
ents as may be scarce or expensive, thereby always ena- 
bling the well-instructed farmer to manufacture his ma- 
nure at small expense, 

IV. Whenever the original ingredients are employed 
after the first experiment with a due state of preparation 
for a large heap of manure, five-eighths of the specified 
ingredients may be dispensed with. 

V. All persons, in every part of the country, who have 
properly investigated the subject by a fair practical test, 
are unanimous in their testimony in regard to its cheap, 
ness and utility. 

VI. It is available in all sections where it is a desirable 
object to obtain a plentiful supply of rich manure with the 
least expense. 




COPYRIGHT. 

BE IT "BNOWT^, maf, ^yiii)i^^d/ ^ud dci^^'eiUetec/ en ide 

fyr o^ ^de ca^iM^Mn^. 

■* • % ^ ■* ' 

e-/ nezeun^o tt&f ^nu dana ana r^eac. 








PATENT RIGHT. 

d ^11 Wf)^m it mu^ concern* 

l^Sj fj] ^n^ a/nc^Mcanea, aTTb me cuMtanee of^ me 
\ fiaienl oMacnea io Mm 'm&mod o±_ TUO'Scna ^yf^anate, m> me ^■- 
\ ca^^ -nezetcTT^o 9ne-n^nea, tuAio£ iian<i^er m clmu tecotaea t^i 

M®W KM®W ¥12, tdai /or ede conoic^taewn o/ Five 
iPollars. z^'Cet^'ueci lo 'ntu jfa^ct ttO/CMjfaoCiO'n, ana ^ fne t>n naTza 

tJi^le of 

manieof ari^ Muo, ana ou me^e At^&nfy ao ^ ni?7i atan^, ^e^, anc^ 
aa^MJ^, me ^tam ^ Tna^ ano^ a^ie ifor ni9?Me^, or fy Awm/ie fy ue 
tnac^ jMT Aid oiv-n ^i/zma^ iMe, ^/€^ aaia TTiefdoa o* yna^na ma^ 
mi^ie ^ anu namc^er o/ aMe<i n-e 9na/u ^,o<^rie,:k> in one /arm, mU ts-o^ 
rjeS me '?namuie, nor im/io/ii or ae^ me rtaia memoa lo any oiner 

Aezdon. 

^jn fy^^Tnony^ tcmet'Co/, tX oef 'mu ■nana and deac io mc^ m^ 
^tumenf, ^dca Jj '" cLy o/ ^/^^^t^^u>»^r) , ^6*4 -^ 




PKEFACE. 



Agriculturists ! The method which I present to you, although not emanating from a 
chemical laboratory, is yet ia harmony with the principles of chemistry, being the resultance 
of the meditations, reflections, and practical experiments, which I now lay before you. It is 
not, then, a theory founded upon probabilities more or less specious; I have practised, and 1 
expose in good faith the processes of i4y invention, with the effects which they have produced. 
They are explained in a way so simple that they can be easily understood and put in practice. 

I make no pretensions to having found any new element for manure; all my merit consists 
in having better observed facts which have either escaped the attention of other men, or of 
which they have not fully appreciated all their importance, and in having turned these obser- 
vations to the profit of agriculture. 

Agriculture is assuredly the most important art which man has discovered, either to supply 
his v/ants, or to smooth the cares which are inseparable from his existence. It is not, then, an 
exaggeration to maintain, that in default of all other inventions, the processes of agriculture 
alone would suffice for his preservation, and even for the embellishment of life. 

It may also be asserted, that agriculture, in its broadest signification, is a very complicated 
science; which ties itself by a thousand threads to all other branches of human knowledge, but 
in its more restricted sense it consists in the tillage, and in the establishment of manures, in 
accordance with the wants of the soil and its products. 

I know of no better way of urging the importance of manures than by quoting the following 
passage from an admirable work upon "The Nature of Manures, and the Manner in which 
they Act," by the illustrious Parmentier : — 

" The scarcity of manures, and their unskilful employment, are the principal causes of the 
sterility of a country. In vain are united efforts to discover new modes of culture, to reform 
those already known, and to improve agricultural implements ; if we neglect the first sources 
of fecundity, the crops will always be indifferent and uncertain." 

Nothing can be said upon the subject of manures more just and profound. 

Well, it is precisely this scarcity of manures which afflicts our country, and which is the 
greatest plague of our agriculture, rendered yet more sensible by their unskilful employment. 
But let us search a little into the probable causes of this scarcity. 

At first, farmers, ignorant of the application of chemistry to agriculture, employ only 
manure from cattle and mineral amendments for their exhausted grounds, and of these there is 
always an insufficiency ; for the quantity of cattle which they possess is ordinarily proportioned 
to the size of their farms, and everybody knows that the richest proprietor of cattle is far 
from having enough to satisfy the wants of his domains. It is true that pride sometimes 
induces them to say that they can produce enough from their cattle, but they only cheat them- 
selves by the illusion. And as for the large quantity of mineral amendments which they 
employ by themselves, they are, so used, not only of short duration in the ground, but, unskil- 
fully appropriated to soils and plants, are often more deleterious than useful. 

It must, then, be admitted, that this facility to procure cattle manure and mineral amend- 
ments, the first coming of itself, and the second being bought ready made, is one of the prin- 
cipal causes of the scarcity of manure and the stagnation in the art of preparing it. 

And furthermore, this scarcity of manure proves the negligence of the great number of 
farmers, and the little attention which they have given, up to this time, to the procurement 
and preservation of that which is of the utmost necessity to the culture of a farm. In a 



6 PREFACE. 

great number of farms the manure is regarded as a merely incidental circumstance; 
many of the elements of manure are suffered to waste, which this method would seive to 
combine; nearly everywhere the juices, or principal fecundating elements of the manure heap, 
are dissipated or lost by the sole fault of the farmer. He does not dream of the utility of 
human excrements, as if these materials were not as valuable as the manure from cattle; in 
short, nowhere is there a manufactory for manures attached to a farm. 

The little progress which the art of manures has made, is still further explained by the fact 
that the science of chemistry, which has done so much in other arts, has done the least in this. 
Anil why ? Because few persons are fond of living in an infected atmosphere, to do which it 
is necessary to possess a certain strength of will, to overcome the repugnance which is excited 
by the sight, the smell, and touch of bodies, disorganized by fermentation. 

In all branches of science, where they can make their experiments in the laboratory, there 
has been progress, but in the art of manures or fermentation, where credit can only be gained 
by the reunion of a mass of organized bodies which ought to disagree, there has been but litlle 
progress for centuries. As we read in Virail and the Greek agriculturists, so let us descend 
to our oivn days, look into every work upon agriculture, ancient or modern, and we will find 
that the manures which we employ in a state of combination were used by them separately. 
We shall observe, that notwithstanding Oliver de Serre, Humphrey Davy, Maurice, JMarlin 
Rozier, Thaer, Puvis, Parraentier, Dombasle, Payen, Liebig, and others, whose works are in 
other respects admirable, there has not been established, before the present method, any real 
prosress in the art of manures, because these authors have gone around the true question, 
which, with great sagacity, they had foreseen. The one who gave the first idea of this system 
was a practical farmer in the south of France, named Jauflret, but his method required 
improvements to render it useful to agriculture. 

Thus it is established, as well by that which has preceded as by that which is to follow, 
that the art of manures was given up to chance, that it reposed upon no sure foundation, and 
that farmers of all countries made their manures according to circumstances, or rather at 
hap-hazard. From whence we should conclude that agriculture can not truly flourish until 
each farm shall have on it a systemized manure factory, and an intelligent man to direct it, so 
as to make ihe necessary manure, and to graduate it to the various soils and plants. Now 
this method gives the general rules of such a system, and puts every one in a way of accom- 
plishing this object. It is nevertheless for you to act, to put your hands to the work, and be 
assured that this scarcity of manures will soon disappear, and this sore upon our agriculture 
will be healed for ever. 

I have reason to believe that this method will be acknowledged throughout all the Union 
as of general utility ; although the benefit will be more or less considerable according to the 
local position and degree of intelligence of those who may make its application. 

The whole of the present method is divided into sections, and subdivided into articles. 
Pakt First. — The method in all its simplicity. 
Part Second. — Explanation and analytical developments of the method. Solutions of manure 

questions of high importance, and supplementary articles consequent upon this system. 

I earnestly recommend every one, before commencing operations, to read entirely through 
the two parts which constitute the whole of the method, and oftener if they have leisure. 
Without this preliminary care, the system will not be well comprehended, because the two 
pnrts are linked together, feed and sustain each other, and form an inseparable whole. 

As the question of manures, alone, gathers in its immense net nearly all the art of agriculture, 
I am very far from believing that I have closed the mine by this method : on the contrary, T 
have only opened it ; and its progress, relying upon science and practice, will enlarge the art 
to t'ulness. 

The appearance of my method gives the first idea — the first movement; and when this idea 
is well understood, and the movement has taken place, this art, which was stationary before 
the new impulse, will forthwith march with rapidity — will increase from tributes from our men 
of science and of genius — and will be improved by our intelligent agriculturists. In the mean- 
while, I indulge the satisfaction of having created a system which has ripened under my 



PREFACE. 

experiments, and from which every farmer can from this moment put his hands to the work, 
under the full assurance that he will considerably augment his products by following my 
economical processes. 

I have established an office at New York, where each subscriber to my method can address 
me (postage paid) for such instructions as he may desire upon the application of the system, 
either when he may become embarrassed upon one or more points of the practice, or when 
he may not have obtained the satisfactory results which the proper application of this method 
assures. It is at this office, also, that subscribers are invited to address reports upon the results 
of their operations, and either modifications or improvements which they may think proper to 
suggest. 

I will publish, in the month of February of each year, a collection, in pamphlet form, which 
will contain all the modifications and improvements made either by my subscribers or myself, 
having first examined and recognised them to be for the interest of agriculture ; also the 
various results obtained from the use of this manure. 

This collection will follow the present method, and each subscriber will receive a copy. To 
those who refund the expenses of printing, which will not be over twenty-five cents a copy, the 
subsequent number will be sent. 

In doing so, we will approach toward a complete and entire constitution for the art of 
manures; and, to sum up, I shall have obtained my end, which is, the good of Agriculture. 



A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR TO AGRICULTURISTS. 

When I first introduced this method into American Agriculture, I judged it prudent, for 
many reasons, to publish at first but a part of it; enough, however, to enable the intelligent 
farmer to succeed in the experiment. Before encountering the expense required to publish in 
full the fruits of my labors, I was anxious to ascertain if this system would be well received 
and properly appreciated by the agricultural public. My expectations were not disappointed 
that trial having been crowned with entire success. Thus encouraged, it became my duty to 
persevere, and to give you the result of all my researches and experiments. This you will 
find in my new work, which, I can say with confidence, is the key with which you can, by the 
exercise of a little intelligence and industry, double the product of your farms; for in this 
work the system is so much improved, its application rendered so easy, the whole so clearly 
explained and so fully detailed, that if you conform to its prescriptions and instructions with 
scrupulous exactness, success is certain. 

Aware that, as practical men, you did not want a cumbrous scientific work — one of those 
bis; volumes which contain hundreds of theories and problems, or mere agricultural questions, 
which it is so much the fashion of the day to put and never to solve — I present to you a small 
volume of not quite one hundred pages, containing facts and practical results, conscientiously 
given, all of great utility, wherein that which is lost in bulk and learned words will be gained 
in intrinsic value. 

In the main, my method is based upon that known for some time in France as Jauffret's 
System : that is to say, I use the same materials ; for, in my researches and experiments, it 
became my duty to consult not only the small French pamphlet of Jauffret, but all other 
writings which have appeared upon the subject of agriculture, and especially of manure, in 
order to extract from them whatever, by experiment, should prove to be good, valuable, and 
useful to the object I had in view. The merit of this new system does not consist either in the 
materials, or in their combination. These materials have been known for ages as possessing 
fertilizing qualities; and every person, at all acquainted with chemistry, knows, that in mixing 
alkalis with animal matter, a mordant can be obtained which will produce fermentation in a 
heap of vegetables. This, then, is not new; it is the numerous improvements and ameliora- 
tions connected with the application of these materials which give real importance to this new 
system. Therein lies the real progress of the art in the preparation and the application of 
manures, and therein consists the merit of the new edition of the method. True, Jauffret also 
undertook the application of this mixture, but he stojjped half way. His process, such as 



L 



PREFACE. 

described in his pamphlet, can not be used with profit and success, and that for three cogent 
reasons : the first is, the meager and incomplete instructions he gives to the operator upon the 
application of the system; the second, because the hand labor is too painful and expensive; 
and the third, because he did not discover, and consequently could not tell, how to employ the 
air as a second agent of fermentation — a very important point in the operation, because without 
this aid it is impossible to attain that degree of heat which is necessary perfectly to reduce 
vegetable matter into manure in a short time. Therein he failed, and therefore it remained 
for others to accomplish the work he had left incomplete. But although I have, perhaps, gone 
much farther than all others who have hitherto devoted their attention to this subject, I do not 
pretend to have closed the door to improvement by my method. The question of manure is so 
extensive, that it embraces nearly the whole agricultural art, which will in due time advance 
to fulness by relying upon science and practice. Meanwhile, the great step is made; the 
fundamental bases are established ; and the system, as explained in my new work, has been so 
well matured by my experiments, that I can affirm, without fear of misleading any one, that 
any farmer who will undertake to operate on my plan will succeed, and I assure him that 
he will considerably augment the products of his farm by folloviring my economical process in 
the preparation and application of his manure. Here the word "economical" is seriously 
intended. The system, taken altogether, is essentially economical ; for, except a small quantity 
of lime, all the ingredients which enter into the composition of the caustic lye (which, with 
the air, form the two agents of fermentation) are found upon all farms, and cost nothing but 
the labor of gathering them. 

It is chiefly you, who are the friends of improvement, industrious and intelligent farmers, 
whom I seek to engage in the adoption and propagation of this method; because you should 
give the example to your less favored fellow-citizens, who, on witnessing your success, will 
surrender to the evidence of facts and imitate your example. It is only in this way that the 
adoption of my method can become general, and, by its popularity, exercise a great and 
undoubted influence upon the agricultural prosperity of the country. 

Concerning the patent attached to my method, it is evident that it could only be granted for 
the improvement connected with the application of materials already known. You should 
know, then, that the patented process is of the greatest advantage to the farmer, being the 
most economical, and the most easily reduced to practice. It is also the process now in use in 
every section of the Union. You should also understand, that in the patent this process is 
only described in general terms, and that isolated from the "method," it is not likely to be of 
any value. To apply it with success, it is necessary to have my work for a guide. 

According to an agreement between myself and my agents, Messrs. Baek and Gouliaht, 
the patent was issued under their name, and a part of it, comprising ihe right for the Northern 
and Eastern States, was immediately ceded to me by them; which transfer is duly recorded in 
the patent office, in Liber M. page 280 of transfers of patent rights. Then, by a second 
transfer, made to me the 6th November, 1844, by Abbett, Baer, and Gouliart, known as the 
firm of Abbett & Co., the remaining part, comprising the right in the Southern and Western 
States, has also been ceded to me ; which transfer is also recorded in the patent office, in Liber 
S. page 373 : so that by virtue of these two acts, the patent issued under the above names now 
belongs entirely to me. 

With regard to the " method" itself — that is to say, the book which contains the directions 
and instructions indispensable to the farmer who wishes to apply the process — in a word, 
which contains the system complete in all its details, the property and the copyright appertain 
to myself exclusively, according to two legal acts entered in the clerk's office of the southern 
district of New York. Thus, these two rights, although distinct, are inseparable; that is, the 
patent can not be profitable to any one without the method. 

I was compelled to give these explanations, and to make these statements, because all these 
matters have been agitated by the press as well as by private correspondence, and also that, 
for the future, each one may know to whom to apply in regard to this patent and method. 

You should not lose sight of the fact that all the copies of the method are signed and sealed 
with my own hand — a measure I have adopted to prevent imposition and fraud. 



PRICE OF THE METHOD GREATLY REDUCED, 

Until now, I have maintained the prices fixed upon by myseli" and Abbett & Co. — prices 
which varied from six to twenty-five dollars, according to the size of the farms ; and this I was 
obliged to do, because, in accordance with our agreement, I was not at liberty to alter them. 
It was principally to gain this end that I bought out Messrs. Abbett & Co. 

To render my work really popular, I have fixed its price so low that each member of the 
whole agricultural community can purchase it. 

Henceforth, it will be sold at the uniform price of Five Dollars, for every farm in the 
Union that is, 

ONE RIGHT, WITH ONE COPY OF THE METHOD FOR ANY FARM, 

FIVE DOLLARS. 

Very liberal commissions will be allowed to agents. 

Persons with suitable qualifications, wishing to act as local or travelling agents, should 
immediately apply either to me or to my General Agents, stating where they live, and in what 
county or district they propose to act. 

Besides the usual commissions, the agents will receive great facilities for the entire purchase 
of county rights in their respective agencies. 



RIGHTS AND METHODS, WHOLESALE. 

A WORD TO ENTERPRISING MEN. 

Having succeeded in making known the advantages and the practical utility of my method 
to competent and disinterested men, whose characters are sufiiciently known to the public to 
place their testimony beyond doubt ; my " method" being patronised by the most eminent men 
of this country — Messrs. Martin Van Buren, Gov. J. H. Hammond, Gen. Wade Hampton, 
Gen. J. L. Means, Col. Singleton, Col. Hugh Lawsnn, Hon. J. R. Poinsett, W. B. Seabrook, 
Andrew Stephenson, and others, who have adopted it; several thousands of the method having 
already been spread throughout the Union, the greater part of purchasers being eminent agri- 
culturists ; and all subscribers being satisfied with the work, my end has been attained — my 
task stops here : it is now a mere business matter, ready to receive the developments of which 
it is susceptible. 

For these reasons, and desiring to employ my time in new researches and experiments, 
especially upon the subject of ti-ansrmdation oi^ dedid into living vegetables, a highly important 
subject in agriculture, already hinted at in my work, but which is still in a problematical 
state, not reposing upon any solid basis ; and to enable me also, in accordance with my former 
promises, to impart the results of those experiments to the subscribers of my method, I have 
resolved to cede my patent and method, either by Town, County, or by State, to single persons 
or to companies, on the most reasonable terms, the price of which will be fixed according to 
the agricultural importance of the Towns, Counties, or States. 

To purchasers of the patent right, a certain number of the method will be delivered gratis, I 
the number of "methods" to depend on the agricultural importance of the State or County 
that may be ceded. 

Herein I present a new branch of industry to enterprising, intelligent, and active men. It 
would be superfluous to enlarge upon its advantages ; for it will be seen at a glance, by 
perusing the annexed documents, that my method enjoys a high reputation in the Union, and 
that this enterprise is in its nature as honorable as it is lucrative. 



10 



PRELIMINARY HINTS 

Important to Beginners, in their first efforts to avail themselves of the 
Method, with the least trouble and expense. 



Every part of the Method is valuable, and should be carefully studied, and 
thoroughly understood, before any attempt is made to put it into practice. Ev- 
ery part of the Method, too, has its distinct merits particularly adapted to differ- 
ent localiiies and peculiar wants of each individual. Hence it is desirable 
that all its provisions should be fully investigated, that the proprietor of the 
method may select for his own immediate use vt'hat he finds best suited to his 
circumstances. Even without adopting the regular system prescribed in the 
Method, the purchaser thereof will find himself amply remunerated for all his 
expense, by the important suggestions contained in the work, which will enable 
him, not only to use to great advantage essential elements of manure, which 
are commonly wasted, but also to improve and augment manure already on 
hand. When the regular process is adopted, an economist would prefer to ap- 
ply it to such substances as his peculiar location is best calculated to furnish 
to advantage. If he has vegetable substances of any kind on hand, he can 

; employ them to the greatest profit by applying the principles of the Method. 

; But if vegetable matter can not be furnished, manure may nevertheless be made 
of earth to good advantage, and many who have tested its results regard the 
manufacture of earth manure as one of the most important advantages of the 
Method. In regard to economy in fixtures and indispensable ingredient, it will 
be perceived, by a thorough acquaintance with the work, that everything ob- 
jectionable in cost of fixtures or difficult of procurement in the ingredients may 
be dispensed with, so that every one is at liberty to conform to his circumstan- 
ces or taste, as the case may be. There need be no doubt but that, in all cases 
where all the regular fixtures are employed, and all the original ingredients 
specified can be obtained at a reasonable cost, they will abundantly repay the 
expense of the outlay. Yet it must be satisfactory to know that, whenever the 
cost of fixtures is likely to amount to an objection to their use, a few hours' 
work will furnish all the fixtures which are absolutely necessary, and that such 
ingredients only are indispensable as are universally attainable, while those 
which are most difficult to procure may be dispensed with without damage. 

Reservoir. 
A hole may be excavated in the ground by a man and team in a very short 
time, with the aid of a plough and scraper, which will answer a good purpose to 
prepare the ley. 

If the ground be naturally porous, and will not safely retain water, it may 
easily be rendered retentive, by puddling it with clay. 



PRELIMINARY HINTS. 11 

Grate. 

This article, which is chiefly useful in making vegetable manure, in afTordino- 
a circulation of air under the bottom of the heap, may be made of the cheapest 
materials at a mere trifle of cost, or may be superseded by the use of old rails, 
slabs, wood from the wood-pile, or anything else which may serve to raise the 
heap a little from the ground, and afford access to the air. 

Saturated Water. 

Liquor drained from the barn-yard into a vat or reservoir is usually the best 
saturated water which can be produced to form the ley, and as it commonly 
holds a vast amount of animal nrianure in solution, it will greatly diminish, and 
in most cases supersede, the necessity of adding human excrements or animal 
manure. 

Ley and Ingredients. 

A considerably larger quantity than actually needed, both of ley and ingredi- 
ents, has been indicated in the table, to reduce one ton of drv, or two tons of 
green vegetables, for two reasons : first, to obtain manure vastly superior to 
stable or yard manure ; secondly, to afford, beginners, and farmers of ordinary 
capacity, the means of seeing their very first essays crowned with success. In 
fact, the ingredients employt^d in the proportion enumerated in the table con- 
stitute *at least three fourths of the fertilizing power of our manure, while the 
vegetables themselves contribute only about one fourth, ar rather are merely 
considered as the retainers of the ley. It follows, naturally, that the more we 
increase the dose of ingredients, the more strong and powerful our manure 
becomes ; and it would haA^e been hazardous to indicate, primarily, the lesser 
quantities, for then success would not have been quite so certain, especially 
when beginners operate upon a small quantity of vegetables. But you, reader, 
who are perhaps a skilful cultivator, or may have acquired some practical 
knowledge of this system, may, with the same quantity of ley and dose of 
ingredients specified in the table, reduce double the weight of vegetables — that 
is, 2 or 4, instead of 1 or 2 tons. No doubt this manure will be less powerful; 
still it will be equal at least to stable or yard manure. 

By reference to the Method, it will be perceived that most of the prescribed 
ingredients to form the ley, may either be dispensed with entirely, if occasion 
should require, or other articles may be substituted in th«ir place. The follow- 
ing important table, showing to what extent these ingredients may be augmented 
or diminished, without seriously affecting the result, has too frequently escaped 
observation in its appropriate place in the body of the work. To prevent the 
recurrence of such an oversight, it is here inserted : — 

1st. Lime — 2 bushels maybe reduced to 1 bushel, or augmented to 8 bushels. 

2d. Soot— 2 bushels do do 5 bushels. 

3d. Ashes — 2 bushels do 1 do 8 bushels. 

4th. Salt — 4 pounds do do 16 pounds. 

5th. Saltpetre — 2 pounds do do 100 pounds. 

6th. Plaster — 5 bushels do 2 do 15 bushels. 

7th. Excrements — 3 barrels do 2 do 12 barrels. 

8th. Leaven — 1 barrel do do 10 barrels. 

I If you employ a large quantity of vegetables at once, you may reduce still 



12 PRELIMINARY HINTS. 



more the dose of ingredients above given. Consult paragraph. 2d of article 4th, 
2d section, 2d part of the work. 

Vegetable Manure hy Irrigation. 
As this mode is commonly regarded to be more practicable than that per- 
formed by immersion, on account of its being attended with less labor, it may 
be proper to remark, that even this may be found far less laborious than the 
detailed description of the performance would seem to indicate. The manu- 
facturer of manure on this plan will find that much more depends on the quality 
of his ley than on the observance of every minutia in the manner of performing 
the labor. Indeed, such is the scarcity and expense of labor in this country, 
that in most cases it would be advisable greatly to abridge the labor of prepar- 
ing the vegetable materials, and also in the construction of the heap. It is con- 
ceived that all that is essential to insure success in the performance is, 1st. To 
be particular in obtaining a due preparation of the ley ; 2d. To be careful to 
see that every portion of the mass is thoroughly wet with the liquor at the time 
of forming and finishing the heap, and at suitable intervals twice afterward. 
3d. As a precaution, it may be proper to remark that, if a heap is partially wa- 
tered in its erection, it is usually advisable to complete the heap with tolerable 
expedition, as fermentation will soon commence with the parts first watered, 
and a tardy completion of the heap would render the parts first put up and wet 
liable to have fermentation interrupted by the successive waterings of other 
parts of the heap. All danger in this respect may be avoided, by having the 
vegetable materials at hand of which the heap is to be composed, and to ob- 
serve due care to finish the formation, and first watering in twenty-four hours 
from its commencement. 

Vegetable and Mineral Composts, in which hogs and other swampy matters are 

included. 

It may appear to some, who are desirous of using such substances, that the 
process of cutting bogs, &c., into small pieces, as described in the Method, is 
too laborious and expensive for general adoption. For the encouragement of 
such persons, it may be stated as a matter of fact, that very satisfactory results 
have been obtained in the decomposition of such substances, by following the 
Method in other respects, while the inconvenience of cutting into small pieces 
has been entirely avoided. 

Earth Manure. 

This valuable article, which affords one of the best top-dressings for mead- 
ows, and is well adapted to about every description of crop which may be cul- 
tivated, may everywhere be manufactured at little expense. The modes of 
manufacture are simple, and are clearly described in the work. 




TTnion > M 1? T TI n "n ^ '^° ^°'® nothing 

is strength. J ItI Ij Ji IL \J U , C is economy. 

, < 

PART FIRST. 

SECTION FIRST. 

PROCESS TO MAKE VEGETABLE MANURE BY I'ERMENTATION. 
Article First. — Of Saturated Water. 

Saturated water, such as we desire, is to be met with at ahnost every step 
in the country. It is simply water in which vegetable and animal matters have 
been suffered to decompose and rot. Pure water, in case of need, may serve | 
your purpose ; but as it is so easy to make this saturated water, and as it con- 
tributes so much to the decomposition and good quality of the manure, we 
recommend to farmers not to begrudge the trifling labor required in its prepara- 
tion, and always to employ it in preference to pure water. 

The first thing to be done is to be prepare a convenient reservoir to contain a 
sufficient quantity of the liquid. We employ for this purpose, hogsheads, vats, 
or small ponds. In case there are none of these at hand, a common ditch may 
be dug of sufficient size, the bottom and sides of which should be beaten so as 
to prevent the loss of water by filtration. If, notwithstanding these precautions, 
the soil will not retain the water, an old cask of the largest size, with one head 
knocked out and buried to the brim, will answer every purpose. 

After a time, when the farmer is convinced of the utility of this method, he 
will find it to his advantage to establish permanent reservoirs. These reser- 
voirs should be so placed that the water may flow into them freely. Into these 
reservoirs may be thrown all easily-decaying vegetable or animal substances, 
such as weeds growing on the banks of ditches and around houses, the remains 
of dead animals, urine, sweepings of the house, slops of the kitchen, and similar 
materials. 

Add to this liquid about a pint of quick-lime to every barrel of water. From 
time to time, stir up the whole from its depth with a long pole,* and fermentation 
will soon commence. 

The necessary time for this water to acquire all its qualities, varies according 
to the quantity and nature of the material which may be put into it, and accord- 
ing tQ the temperature of the air. It may arrive at this point in about eight 
days, while at other times three weeks, or even a month, are necessary. The 
only rule which you have to observe in this respect, is, that the water shall be 

* For this purpose, a handle inserted in the half round of a little barrel head will make an 
instrument that will amply repay its cost 



ft 



14 



BOMMER S METHOD 



in full fermentation, and as highly charged as possible with the materials which 
you have put into it. After all, too much importance should not be attached to 
the perfect preparation of this liquid ; it is only one of the means of making 
the manure with the more despatch and economy. 

It frequently happens that the farmer finds this saturated water already made : 
ihe stagnant and corrupt water in ditches and ponds on the farm, or near it — all 
low spots where water gathers and stagnates, will furnish a saturated water of 
excellent quality. Saturated water serves to temper the materials which com- 
pose the lye, and to feed them. 

Article Second. — Place of Operation. 

Wherever the farmer has made or found his reservoirs, there also should be 
his manure heap, whether in the farm-ya,rd or the field. An oblong square spot 
should be fixed upon, of a size suitable to the quantity of the manure to be made. 

This being staked out, you throw the earth from the inside of your lines, until 
the excavation has a depth of six inches in the higher part, and nine in the 
lower ; this will give to the excavation a fall of three inches toward the reser- 
voir for the lye which will be spoken of in article third. 

Afterward you cut obliquely the sides of the excavation, so as to give an 
inclination toward its base, in order that the air may penetrate under the heap 
through the vent-holes, which are in the supports of the grate, which will be 
spoken of in the following article. 

This done, level perfectly the ground, beat or puddle all the surface so as to 
prevent the filtration of the drainings ; then make, within two feet of each other, 
some small gutters across the breadth of the excavation, which should be one 
inch deep and four inches wide, into which irday laths of the same dimensions, 
so that they be level with the surface of the excavation. 

These laths, so placed, are intended to prevent the sinking of the grate into 
the earth, which might be occasioned by the weight of the heap. 

Below is the plan of the excavation, or ground-plan of a heap : — 



Fig. 1. 




m3 



iruffi 



ii»™ 




itii^MM 



A. Represents the border or em- 
bankment of earth, spoken of in the 
first part of Art. 2. 

B. Represents the obliquely cut 
on the side of the excavation, spo- 
ken of in the second part of Art. 2. 

c. Represents the earth inside 
the excavation. 

D. Represents the laths, spoken 
of at the end of Art, 2.* 



• These lalhs or bars acres the platform are necessary only when the soil is light, or, in 
short, not very solid; should the soil be clayey, compact, and solid, these bars are useless, anil 
may be omitted. 

} 



Article Third. — Grate vpoii which the Heap is built. 

To construct this grate, take laths of from three to five inches wide, and half 
to one inch thick, place them at from one to one and a half inches distance 
from each other, upon wooden supports, one inch thick and six inches high in 
the high part, and nine inches high in the lower part, or toward the reservoir, 
so that when the grate is set upon the excavation it will be upon a level with 
the exterior soil. 

The laths ought to be as long as the width of the excavation, and the sup- 
ports as long as the length of it, because the grate covers all the surface of the 
excavation. 

The number of laths will depend upon the length of the excavation, and that 
of the supports upon the breadth. These last should be placed at two feet 
distance from each other, to commence at the interior edge of the excavation 
on each side. In this manner the grate will have sufficient strength to support 
all the weight of the heap. 

Before nailing the laths upon the supports, three openings should be made in 
each support, where they do not rest upon the excavated ground ; that is to say, 
you should make in each support three vent-holes with the saw, half the height 
of the support and one foot wide. 

These vent-holes should be made in the intervals of the large laths which 
are inlaid in and traverse the excavation, so that in all cases the wood of the 
supports may rest upon the laths. 

These vent-holes are intended to facilitate the circulation of the air under the 
grate, and of course under the heap. 

The advantages of this grate are described in the second part of this Method, 
Article 2, Section 2. 

Below is the plan of the grate :^ 



Fig. 2 




This grate has the 
same dimensions as the 
excavation in fig. 1. — 
Its construction is suf- 
ficiently explained in 
article 3. 



16 



BOMMER S METHOD 



For those who have not the convenience, or object to the expense of makino- 
the grate, I recommend the following plan of laying off their place of 
operation : — 

A. Represents the ground. 

B. The Channels, eight inches in 
width, four inches deep at the upper 
end or toward the middle of the 
platform, and five inches deep at the 
lower end, or toward the gutter. 

c. Is a gutter around the heap, 
having at top the same depth as the 
glitters B, and on both sides, five 
inches in width at the top, and six at 
the bottom, or toward the vat. 

N. B. This difference in the depth 
of the gutters is designed to give 
them a slight inclination or fall, in 
order to facilitate the descent of the 
running liquid. 

D. Two small channels or gutters, 
g four inches deep. 

F. Are rails placed lengthwise on the platform, at the distance of three feet 
between each. 

G. Are rails crossing the foregoing ones (F) with the space of four inches 
between each. 



Article Fourth. — Reservoir for the Lye. 

Below the declivity of the excavation described in Article Second, a ditch or 
vat must be dug, four feet deep, ten feet square. If the soil absorbs the water, 
it should be puddled with clay, floored and walled with plank, or paved and 
walled with brick, in order to prevent the filtration and loss of lye. 

It is in this reservoir that we prepare the lye in which we water the mate- 
rials intended to be reduced to manure, and in which also is retained all the 
liquid which flows from the heap during the operation. 

The small farmer, who has only one reservoir, can make it serve both for the 
preparation of the saturated water and the lye ; yet, as the saturated water 
requires time for its preparation, and ought always to be secured beforehand in 
a sufllcient quantity, it is advantageous to have a reservoir for this use alone, 
and the more so as the lye is never made in as large a quantity as the saturated 
water. 




FOR MAKING MANURE. 
10 feet. 



17 



Fia. 4. 




Plan of the location where 
the work is done, ready for 
depositing the materials to be 
converted into manure. 

The grate placed over the 

javation. 

The reservoir prepared to 

eive the lye. 



f 



10 feet. 

< Article Fifth. — Tahle of viaterials of which the lye is composed, as near as 
may be judged of by guess, without the necessity of carefully measuring them. 

m 

To convert into manure one ton (2,000 lbs.) of dry straw or vegetables, or 

two tons (4,000 lbs.) of green vegetables, either of which will produce about 

four tons (8,000 lbs.) of manure. The ingredients to compose the lye should 

be used in the folio vving proportions : — 

1. Quick Lime (unslaked stone lime), • 2 bushels. 

•2. Soot, 2 do. 

3. Ashes not slaked, 2 do. 

4. Salt, 4 pounds. 

5. Saltpetre, 2 do. 

6. Ground Plaster of Paris, or Gypsum, 5 bushels. 

7. Human Excrements, or Night Soil, 3 barrels. 

8. Leaven, which is fermented liquid that has passed through manure 

prepared after this method, 1 barrel. 

Article Sixth. 

The following materials may be substituted, when necessary, for a part of 
( those designated in the table above : — 
j SOOT. 

i In place of two bushels of chimney soot, take six bushels of materials from 
5 an rrobiiagfi, or clearing fire. (See 2d Part, 2d Sec, Art. 3, Sec. 2.) 



18 bommer's method 

ASHES 
In place of two bushels of wood ashes, take six pounds of potash, or of soda. 

PLASTER. 
For five bushels of plaster, substitute six barrels of slime from the river or 
sea-shore, or marl, or swampy matter, or the mud from ditches, or the mould 
from the foot of a hill, or dirt from streets, or black earth from the woods. 

HUMAN EXCREMENTS. 

For three barrels of night soil, substitute five barrels of horse, ox, cow, or 
hog dung, or take six barrels of " purin," that is to say, the juice proceeding 
from the manure of cattle, or liquid which flows from a manure heap after a 
rain. < 

These three barrels of excrements may also be replaced by two bushels of I 
barley, or two and a half bushels of any other grain. Steep the grain in a i 
barrel with lye enough to cover it. When the lye can not be had, take urine 
mixed with water. By this steeping the grain swells, ferments, and in about \ 
six or eight days bursts, and when the grain can be crushed by the pressure of 1 
the finger, and converted into a kind of paste, it is ready for use. 

LEAVEN, OR FERMENTED JUICE. \ 

Concerning the " leaven," or fermented juice, which flows from the heap, it | 
can only be had after the operation has been gone through with, and therefore j 
at the first trial it must be dispensed with, and in its place the first seven ingre- | 
dients announced in the table should each be augmented at least one fifth ; and this | 
is the more especially recommended to his attention, as the operator, not having 
had practice in this work, might not, without great care, obtain a satisfactory 
result. 

Afterward, and as soon as the " leaven" and saturated water shall be well 
prepared, the preparations indicated in the table should be fidlowed ; and when I 
the water is highly impregnated with decomposed materials, and the " leaven" 
is in great strength and quantity, the other ingredients may be diminished one | 
third without injuring the quality of the manure. \ 

The fermentation, which causes the decomposition of the materials, being \ 
the essential point in the operation, it should be observed that its development ■ 
depends more upon the goodness of the " leaven" and of the saturated water, | 
and the copious application of the mixture, than upon the quantity of the other i 
ingredients, and he who will attend to these three conditions, and who puts 1 
forth a little skill in the manipulation, is always sure of success. j 

Those who desire to vary the quality of their manure according to their soil, 
or the family of plants they are growing, will consult Articles three and four, 
Section first, of the second part of this Method, which will show them in what \ 
proportion to augment or diminish these ingredients. < 

Article Seventh. — Composition of the Lye. \ 

Stir well the saturated water ; then pour six to ten barrels of it into the reser- \ 
voir for making the lye; afterward put in the quick lime, having previously | 

.j 



f 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 19 



j dissolved it in clear water ;* then the soot, also diluted with water : then the 
j ashes, the salt, and the saltpetre : stir these ingredients well together ; then 
j throw in the ground plaster of Paris, the excrements, and the " leaven," or 
i whatever you may have substituted for each. After having perfectly mixed all 
these, add of saturated or other water enough to make a total of about twenty 
barrels of the lye, if the vegetables are green, and about thirty barrels if they 
( are dr\\ 
i 
i Article Eighth. — Manner of making the Manure Heap. 

It would be well to spread the straw and stalks, or hard weeds, over the 
farm-yard for a few days previous, that they may be broken by the tramping of 
the cattle, or spread them near the manure heap, and afterward to pass a roller 
over them. By this means the materials are softened and become more easily 
impregnated with the lye. The vegetables to be converted into manure being 
ready, and lye prepared, we will proceed to construct the heap. 

This operation may be done in two ways — by immersion and by irrigation. 

Sec. 1. Process by immersion. 

Stir well the lye, then throw a portion of the vegetables into the reservoir. 
Plunge them into the lye with a fork, shovel, or other instrument, until they are 
thoroughly soaked ; then place them upon the grate over the excavation, of 
which we have already spoken ; continue so until you have covered the whole 
surface of the grate with a layer of some nine or ten inches in height ; then 
take the mud or slime which you can gather from the bottom of the reservoir, 
and spread a coating of it over the whole surface of the layer of vegetables ; 
then throw the lye over the whole, so that the mud may descend and divide 
itself through the whole thickness of the layer ; then tread it down so as to 
render it as compact as possible. 

This first layer finished, you recommence the same labor in throwing a 
second portion of the vegetables into the lye reservoir, soaking them, placing 
them on the first layer, spreading again a coating of mud, drenching it with the 
lye, and tramping again upon this second layer, so as to make the mass compact. 
Then place on that the third layer, and in the same manner continue until you 
have disposed of all the materials which are at hand to be reduced to manure. 

The sides of the heap should be built perpendicularly, and give to it a height 
of from five to ten feet, according to the quantity of your materials. 

The harder and more woody the materials are, the more they require being 
pressed and tramped upon as you are building the heap. 

When all the materials are piled up, and the heap is terminated, take the 
balance of the mud which you will find at the bottom of the reservoir, and 
spread it over the top of the heap ; then pour the remaining lye upon it ; and 
after having trodden it down well, cover it with straw or weeds, in order to 
preserve it from the rains, or the rays of the sun. 

* The quick-lime should be carefully and cautiously slaked, so as not to drown it, but 
make it into a thin and consistent whitewash. 

) 



20 



BOMMER S METHOD. 




Sec. 2. Process by irrigation, or watering. 
You commence by putting upon the grate before mentioned, a layer of the 
materials designed to be converted into manure. After this layer has attained a 
height of some ten or twelve inches, water it well with the lye ; this done, take 
mud from the bottom of the lye reservoir and spread it over the layer ; after 
which, pour the lye again upon it, in order that the mud may descend and divide 
itself through all the thickness of the layer ; tramp it over well, that it may be 
compressed into a mass and rendered as compact as possible. 

Afterward place a second layer of the materials, of the same height, upon the 
first ; water again very copiously ; then spread the mud again over it, and give 
it a small watering, treading down the mass as before. 

Then you place a third layer of the materials in the same manner as the 
preceding, and continue thus until all the materials have been piled up. 
The rest of the work is done as described in the preceding article. 

Farmers, who need large quantities of manure, will 
do well to make use of a pump, in operating according 
to the second process, by watering, as also for moisten- 
ing. To this end we subjoin a design of a pump, which j 
may be constructed at little cost, out of an inch and a | 
half plank — say twelve feet long,- five inches square on i 
the inside, closed at the bottom, with holes in number 1 
and size sufficient to admit a full supply of water between | 
the bottom and the lower bucket, which is stationary. ' 
Two feet above this last is the upper bucket, to which | 
is attached the rod. The buckets are made out of solid 
square blocks, bored or mortised with the grain, two | 
and a half inches in diameter all through the lower ! 
bucket, but only three fourths the way through the upper 
bucket, so as to leave a hold for the rod as depicted, < 
and also to have a square hole mortised through later- | 
ally, in which the valve is to play. j 

The valves are made of wood, lined on the bottom | 
with leather on which they hinge. | 

The upper bucket is lined on the outside with leather 
nailed fast at the bottom, but displaying outward at the \ 
top. I 

The sides of this block are to be pared off above the valves, as seen in the j 
picture, in order to suffer the water to pass above it. 

Owing to the thickness of the water in which this pump is always used, 1 > 
have found it useful to make it from half an inch to an inch larger at the top \ 
than at the bottom, so that the playing bucket may the more readily free itself ! 
when choked. ' 

When the heap has reached the height of from three to four feet, in case the ; 
work be done by irrigation, the pump should be used by putting it into the reser- \ 
voir of lye ; for, when the heap has attained that elevation, the watering it by \ 
hand becomes fatiguing, particularly when the heap is large. . 




Great care should be taken to have the materials well mixed in piling them. 
When operating upon leaves from the woods, they ought, in piling them, to be 
thoroughly intermixed with other vegetables. 

And this rule should be observed, that every time you use the lye it should 
be well stirred up from its depth, in order that the liquid may be thoroughly 
impregnated with the solid particles which are deposited at the bottom. 

I earnestly recommend not to spare the lye in the waterings, as the success 
of the operation depends in part upon this, for should any part of the heap 
escape being wet with the lye, it will turn white or mould. 

Never forget that it is necessary for every substance which is designed to be 
converted into manure, to be thoroughly soaked with the lye : That fermentation 
will not ensue to the extent desired, unless the materials are very compact. 

Therefore, corn-stalks, owing to their hard, water-proof shell, or exterior 
covering, should be broken at least between every joint, in order that the lye 
may penetrate them. To do this we pass a roller over them, or throw them in 
the barn-yard, or in the most travelled road which is convenient, and even then 
they should be well mixed with other vegetables, and especially those which 
will most readily imbibe liquids ; by this means they will be attacked by the 
fermentation of the adjoining vegetables. 

To keep the heap compact, never cross corn-stalks, or other hard, stiff, 
unyielding materials of that nature, and at every foot high, tramp the heap well, 
and soak it. 

The following design represents the heap after its construction : — 

Fig. 6. 




If the heap be composed of green substances, the fermentation will commence 
in twenty-four hours after the heap is finished. If it be composed of straw, or 
dry materials, it will commence in twd or three days. The second day after 
fermentation has commenced, it ordinarily attains from 100 to 120 degrees of 
Fahrenheit ; a strong odor of litter escapes at that time, and if the draining 
from the manure has nearly ceased, proceed to the first watering after the 
following manner : — 



Sec. 3. First Watering. 

Get on the heap, throw the top of it off", then, with a pointed bar of iron, 
make holes over the whole surface, about eight or ten inches apart, and three 



22 



BOMMER S METHOD 



quarters of the depth of the heap, so that the watering which is to follow may- 
reach all parts of the heap. 

This done, stir well the lye ; then fill all these holes. We make this water- 
ing with buckets, or a pump, and as equally as possible. When the heap has 
been copiously watered, tread it down and stop up the holes ; then cover it 
again with the same materials which served for that purpose the first time. 
Ordinarily there is a sufficient flow of lye from the heap to effect this first 
watering ; still, if there should not be enough you can make it up with saturated 
water, which should be poured into the lye reservoir, at the bottom of which I 
there will always remain sufficient matter to dissolve. j 

The following plan represents the heap when the operator is in the act of I 
making holes for the first watering : — | 

Fig. 7. 




Sec. 4. Second Watering. 

About the eighth or ninth day a strong smell of litter is perceived, the smoke 
escapes from all sides ; we then proceed to a second vvratering, which should be 
done after the manner of the first. 

If there should not be enough of lye for this watering, it can be made up 
with saturated or other water. It would be useful in that case to add a little 
lime, and also a little of the other ingredients, if they should be on hand, but if 
not, do not omit to throw in some dung from the stables. This will much 
improve the water. 

After the second watering, close again all the holes, and cover the heap as 
before. 

Farmers who do not object to the labor, may turn the whole heap, that is, 
before making the second watering, and when the fermentation has gone down, 
they can tear the heap to pieces and reconstruct it immediately afterward. In 
reconstructing it they should place in the middle those materials which were 
upon the sides and at the bottom. 

Water each layer in the same manner as described for the construction of the 
heap by irrigation. It should be observed here, that less lye is necessary than 
when the heap was first constructed, because the materials are already wet, and 
softened by the preceding watering and the fermentation ; and in proceeding 
thus you may shun also the second watering by holes. 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 23 

From this operation two advantages result, which are described in the second 
section of the second part of this Method. 

If the heap is composed of hard and ligneous materials, and such as you may 
not care to take the trouble to turn, it would be well to cut off some five or six 
inches of the outside, and throw it upon the top of the heap, to complete its 
decomposition. 

This ought to be done immediately before the second watering, because the 
materials at the sides of the heap may then be easily cut. 

For this purpose an old scythe-blade, or any other cutting instrument, may 
serve. 

Sec. 5. Third Watering. 

On the eleventh or twelfth day a third watering should be efTected, taking 
care to make new holes, deeper than the first, and, as far as practicable, in other 
places, in order thoroughly to heat the heap by means of the lye, which now 
ought to descend further down. 

Again close the holes and cover the heap, after the operation. 

I again repeat, that you should not spare the lye in the watering, inasmuch as 
a superabundance of it can do no sensible harm, and too little may prevent the 
complete decomposition of the materials. 

When the manure heap is made of straw, or green weeds, the fermentation 
should be stopped at from 155 to 170 degrees of Fahrenheit. When it is of hard 
and ligneous substances, the fermentation should be suffered to raise to 200, or 
210 degrees. 

The fermentation may be arrested by a copious watering. 

Those who do not attain to these degrees of fermentation may rest assured, 
that with a little more care in the manipulation, they will succeed better in sub- 
sequent operations, as they will then have the aid of a good leaven, and a 
well-saturated and corrupted water. 

Those who in fifteen days should not attain the degree abovementioned, 
should proceed to a new watering, after having made an addition of ingredients 
to the lye, in order to repair the losses which they may have made for want of 
practice. 

On the fifteenth day the manure heap is ready to be put in the ground, 
especially in strong clayey soils, or for plants which are a long time in the 
ground, but where you wish to apply it to light and sandy soils, it ought to 
remain in the heap from seven to fifteen days longer. 

After the last watering the fermentation stops little by little, and the manure 
heap may remain so for some time before being used. Yet, if it should have 
remained a long while without being put in the ground, it should be again 
watered to maintain it in its freshness. 

You ought always to avoid, as much as possible, suffering the manure heap 
i to grow old, because, in such cases, the slow and prolonged fermentation which 
; it undergoes destroys a part of the fertilizing substance.* 

* Persons who desire to know precisely the prosress of the fermentation, can easily have 
an account of it by means of a thermometer buried entirely in the heaps, so that the bulb or 
base of the tube shall be fifteen or eighteen inches below the superficies of the heap. 



24 bommer's method 



SECTION SECOND. 

VEGETABLE AND MINERAL COMPOST. 
Article First. — Vegetable Compost or Mould. 

Sec. 1. First process hy high fermentation. 

Compose a lye in the manner described in the First Section, Articles 5th, 6th, 
and 7th, but without the soot and salt, and increase the quantity of quick-lime 
one third. This lye being ready, take, 

1st. About 4,000 lbs. (2 tons) of grass, or any kind of weeds ; a variety of 
them would be preferred. If green vegetables are not to be had, take about 
2,000 lbs. (1 ton) of straw, or dry vegetables. If these matters are ligneous or 
woody, cut them into lengths of about six inches. 

2d. About 3,000 lbs. of vegeto-mineral substance, that is to say, every species 
of peat or mud from marshes or swamps, sods of turf from the breaking up of 
pasturages ; in short, all similar materials of which the vegetable parts predom- 
inate, whether in a soluble or insoluble state. 

If these materials are very wet, expose them to the air until ihey become 
nearly dry ; they will then form into clods, which divide into lumps about the 
size of your fist. 

The materials being thus prepared, you place the grate over the excavation ; 
then spread over this grate some boughs, or long grass, until you have formed a 
layer six inches thick over the whole surface. This layer will prevent the 
bottom of the grate from becoming obstructed by the small pieces into which 
you have divided the materials named in No. 2 above. 

This disposition being made, throw upon the grate the materials designated 
in No. 1 above. When the quantity has attained a thickness of about eight 
inches, throw on it a layer of about six inches of the substances just cited in 
No. 2, and mix the two materials well together. When this is well done, the 
layer should be left as even as possible, and a copious watering of the lye 
should be given. 

After this, place a second layer in the same manner, and water again very 
copiously with the lye ; then a third layer, and so continue until all your mate- 
rials are heaped up. 

Wnen the heap is constructed, cover it with straw or grass, and thus ends the 
first operation. 

If you should have used straw, or dry vegetables, four waterings with lye will 
be required, and if you have used grass, or green vegetables, you need only j 
make three. 

These waterings are made at intervals of four days, and by holes, only these i 
holes are made deeper, and closer together, than those described in the first 1 
section. I 



Sec. 2. Second process, hy moderated fermentation. 

1st. Take about 4,000 lbs. (2 tons) of short manure, which has been made 
after the process described in the first section. If this is not to be had, use 
short stable manure, or from the farm-yard. 

2d. About 6,000 lbs. (3 tons) of vegeto-mineral substances, that is, materials 
of the same nature as those mentioned in No. 2 of the preceding article. If 
these materials are very wet, and are formed into clods, proceed with them as 
described in the preceding article. 

The two species of materials being ready, commence by throwing a portion 
of either of the kinds of manure mentioned in No. 1, above, upon the grate, or 
upon any other place of the farm ; throw there, also, at the same time, a portion 
of one or the other, or many together of the materials cited in No. 2. Mix 
perfectly the two kinds, that is to say, the manure with the turfy substances ; 
after which dispose of the whole in a bed of ten or twelve inches, even in 
thickness ; then pour a full watering of the lye upon all the surface ; afterward 
place on this a second bed of the same depth, and in the same manner as the 
preceding ; water again copiously, then a third layer, and thus continue until 
the materials are heaped up. This done, cover the heap with straw or hay. 

About the seventh or eighth day, water with the lye in the manner described 
in the preceding article. 

The fifteenth day this compost may be used. If it should not be wanted for 
some months, a third watering should be made a few days before using the 
compost. 

Article Third. — Vegeto-mineral Compost without Fermentation. 

In the composition of the lye increase by one third the quantity of each 
ingredient specified in the table. 

Having prepared this lye, take about 4,000 lbs. (2 tons) of vegeto-mineral 
I substances, that is, substances in which the mineral parts predominate, as marl, 
mud from rivers or the sea ; slime from ditches and low places ; black earth 
from the woods, dirt from roads, and all similar substances. If these materials 
are very wet, or formed into clods, they should be proceeded with ^s described 
in Article First, that is, dried and broken to pieces. 

These substances, thus prepared, are thrown in a fair proportion upon the 
excavation (after having removed the grate), or upon any other place, watering 
it well with the lye as you are so doing ; after which stir the mass with a long- 
handled dung-hook. During this stirring pour the water from time to time upon 
it, and when all is well stirred, well kneaded, and the mass has formed a thick 
mud, make it into loaves of 80 lbs. or 100 lbs. weight. Expose these loaves to 
the air in a covered place. 

Afterward, throw a second portion upon the place abovementioned, water it, 
stir it, knead it, form it into loaves, in the same manner as the preceding. 

Then work a third portion in the same way, and continue thus until all the 



J 



2B 



bommer's method 




materials shall be exhausted. When the loaves are dried, pile them up in a 
covered place. \ 

Always, when various kinds and qualities of the materials above described ' 
can be obtained, such mixture should be employed in preference to a single 
species. 

If you can only procure a small quantity of earthy matter, for the base of the 
above amendment (or compost), you can supply the deficiency by adding to it | 
any light friable earth, and mixing them together, or if you have none of the 
materials in question you can act upon the earth alone. 

In this case it will be necessary to double the quantity of the ingredients for 
the lye. 

This compost should be pulverized a few days before use. 



Article Fourth. — Earth Manure. 



This compost may be prepared in different manners, 
processes, each of them, very simple in their practice. 



I will describe two 



Sec. 1. First process. 

To convert about 4,000 lbs. of earth into earth manure : — 
Compose A lye by doubling the ingredients specified in the table. This lye 
is carried ready made upon the soil which you wish to manure. The earth is 
to be formed into heaps of about 2,000 lbs. (1 ton) at equal distances. 

' A large opening is to be made in the top of the heap, and into this pour the 
lye in ^quantity sufficient to moisten the mass of earth ; then close the opening 
by throwing the dirt in from the sides. 

When this earth manure is dry, before spreading stir and mix all parts of the 
heap well together, so as to render the whole mass equally fertilizing. 



Sec. 2. Second process. 

Suppose that it is desired to manure an acre with the earth manure :— 

Form with the earth of the field, and in the middle thereof, a heap running 
the length of the field, and from two to three feet high. This should be opened 
at the top through its whole length, and a sufficient quantity of the lye poured 
into the opening to moisten the entire mass of earth ; then fill up the opening 
from the sides. 

Some days after, this earth will be dry, when it may be used. 

Before spreading, it should be well mixed up, for the same purpose as men- 
tioned at the close of the preceding process. 

These vegetable and mineral composts are admirably adapted to natural or 
artificial meadows, to Indian corn, tobacco, and to gardens. 

They may be prepared in advance, and will keep for a long while without 
losing their quality. 

It will be seen that these various modes of manufacturing composts, offer 
advantages which are not possessed by any mode heretofore known ; not onl 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 27 

are they superior, since they unite all the means of fertilization, but furtlafermore 
they are terminated in a few days instead of a year. 

The public must acknowledge the superiority of composts which have been 
I made by means of lye, and humid fermentation, over those which have been 
; prepared dry, a defective old practice which should disappear for ever. For 
I they have already remarked, without doubt, that the principal points which con- 
stitute this method, are not only to have united divers materials which heretofore 
were employed alone and isolated, and, by this union, to have composed a 
manure superior to those known, but further, to have fabricated these manures by 
means of waterings, or soakings made with a fertilizing liquid of a new com- 
position. 

Every one will readily conceive, that by the use of a fluid mixture, the fusion, 
or breaking down of the materials, will be. promoted; that while on the one 
hand they present mutual points of resistance, on the other they yield mutual 
supports ; like lime and soot, which lose just enough of their acrid and corro- 
sive qualities not to destroy a single particle of the vegetable humus, while with 
dry composts it is impossible to obtain like results. 

As to the ingredients of the lye, which ought to predominate in the prepara- 
tion of composts, and their appropriation to tHe various' soils and plants, see 
Section First, Articles 3, 4, 6, 7, of the second part of the Method. 



THIRD SECTION. 

MEANS TO AUGMENT AND AMELIORATE MANUHE-HEAPa. 
Preparation of a fertilizing liquid for waterings — Employment of dregs, lees, 

AND residues OF DISTILLERIES AND MANUFACTORIES To REVIVE GARDEN BEDS WITHOUT 

CHANGING THE LITTER. 

Article First. — Means to augment and ameliorate Manure-Heaps. 

I WILL suppose that we are to prepare, according to this method, a ton of 
straw, or two tons of green vegetables, which are to produce four tons of good 
manure ; and that, on the other hand, we have four tons (more or less) of manure 
from cattle, and we wish to unite the two, and add a large quantity of the earthy 
substances cited in No. 2 of Article 1 of the preceding section, or of those 
mentioned in Article 3 of the same section, which, in fifteen days, ought to be 
converted into an excellent mould. 

Upon the excavation mentioned before, put some ma.nure prepared after the | 
process described in the first section, forming a bed of from twelve to eighteen 
inches thick ; then add a layer of the earthy substances abovesaid, and when 
the last layer has attained the height of about six inches, put on it a bed, or 
layer of cattle manure, a foot or eighteen inches in height. 

Continue thus until the heap has attained a height of seven or ten feet ; this 
done, holes are to be made in the same manner as has been beforementioned ; 



28 bommer's method 

then through these holes water copiously with the lye ; afterward cover the 
heap in the manner already indicated. 

Make three or four waterings subsequently, at intervals of three or four days j 
from each other. You will perceive here that the expenditure of lye is incon- 
siderable, and that the fifteenth or twentieth day terminates the operation. 

The same operation may be realized without the mixture of the litter manure, 
and with that which is made after this method. You can act upon litter manure 
alone, and by means of waterings ameliorate old manure heaps, and equally 
obtain a mould. 

The earthy substance which has been mixed with the manure will be found 
converted into a black mould, and very fertilizing. 

You will find, by this operation, that you have at least doubled your quantity 
of manure in weight and quality ; that the two species of manure have been 
ameliorated, and that you have obtained, in addition, a mould of the first quality ; 
and that by the mixture of these manures you have produced for subsequent 
operations a leaven of manure which is still better, because these leavens 
become always, with time, of a superior quality, especially if you should have 
placed, in the middle of the heap, rotten fish, or spoiled provisions of any kind ; 
for these materials dissolve in a few days into a valuable juice, by the force of 
the lye and fermentation, which leaves no traces of them but the bones. 

It is much to be desired that the farmer should overcome his repugnance to 
making use of dead animals, and other feculent substances, which he may have 
on his farm, and which he now frequently neglects, not thinking how great an 
advantage it would be to him to employ them in this manner. He should suffer 
nothing to be lost on his farm ; nothing is small in farming ; the most trifling 
details have their importance, and it is in this true economy is shown. 

Article Second. — Means to prepare" Purin" a fertilizing Liquid for Watering. 

In farms that are well kept there is a ditch or cistern, which receives the 
purin which flows from the stables, the farm-yards, and the manure-heaps. 

This precious liquid, always in too small quantity to satisfy our desires, is 
employed to water the manure-heap, and afterward the meadows. 

I do not deny its good effects ; on the contrary, I will say, that it is our desire 
to obtain it in larger quantities, and to give it a more fertilizing and durable 
action. 

Although I have always acknowledged that it is more advantageous to fix this 
liquid in the ground, or to make it serve for the fabrication of composts, which 
is demonstrated in the third section, article third, of the second part, I have 
nevertheless made experiments to arrive at an easy means to augment, and also 
to create this liquid manure at will, and improve its fertilizing quality, to enable 
persons who wish to continue this system to receive more profit than formerly. 

This plan consists simply in the employment of the lye of this method, to 
which is added a certain quantity of water, and of the flo wings from a manure- 
heap. 

For the preparation of one hundred barrels of this purin, use the various sub- 



> stances which enter into the composition of the lye, in double the quantities j 
I indicated in the table ; then add ten barrels of the drainings from a manure-heap \ 
j made after this method, or, for want of that, take twelve or fifteen barrels of the | 
I fiowings from ordinary manure. | 

I These various substances are mixed together in the manner already indicated, > 
I after which add eighty-five or ninety barrels of saturated water ; if you have it I 
I not, pure water must answer. > 

I Stir all the mass while you are adding this water, so as to produce a complete i 
I mixture, and cause the dissolution of all the materials. | 

I It would be well to suffer this liquor to ferment for twelve or fifteen days ; \ 
I notwithstanding, if you are hurried, it can be used with success in about four or ? 

five days. \ 

I The manner of watering with this urine is known everywhere. You can use 

for this purpose a large hogshead, placed upon a cart, with the hole in the rear; 
I opposite to this hole is placed a board a little inclined, and when the plug 

which closes the hole is taken out, the liquid strikes with force against the 
I board, and spouting from all sides it spreads equally enough over a good space 
I of ground. 

I As this liquid is more or less thick, it is necessary to give the vent which 
) discharges it a diameter of at least one inch ; and for the same reason, in order 

to facilitate the refilling of the hogshead, you should make the opening at the 

bung-hole about eight inches square. 

I recommend this liquid to be well stirred in the reservoir every time the 

hogshead is filled, so that the thick parts may not remain at the bottom. 
It is better to make these waterings toward night. 
This operation being practised upon leguminous plants, it would be very 

advantageous to make the lime, and especially the plaster of Paris, predominate 

in the composition of the liquid, and in place of doubling these two ingredients, 

as it is advised above, you triple the quantity of the lime, and quadruple that of 

the plaster of Paris. 

Article Third. — To employ the Dregs or Lees, and Residues of Distilleries and 

Manvfactories. 



All lees, and residues of distilleries and manufactories, can be reduced to 
manure by this method. 

This is done by mixing them with the vegetables, and passing the whole 
through the lye. 

As the manner of operating is contained in, and grows out of the preceding, 
it would be superfluous in me to enlarge upon the mode of reducing these mate- 
rials to manure ; yet, as most part of the residues are not manure of themselves, 
and they only become so as a retainer of the lye and aramoniacal gas developed 
in the fermentation, I ought to recommend the employment of those materials 
in their just proportions ; that is to say, if you desire to act upon two tons of 
vegetable, you should not add to them more than two tons of organic residues ; 
as, for example, tan, or the lees of apples from a cider-mill ; because the most 



r' 

30 bommer's method. 

part of the residues have been deprived pf their salts, alkalies, and fermenting 
properties, by the anterior operations, and are nothing more than inert bodies. 
It is natural, then, that unless you employ a very great portion, the fermentino- 
power contained in the vegetables will not be strong enough to raise a degree 
of heat sufficient to decompose the materials, or to enrich them with the gases 
developed in the fermentation. If the residues are inorganic, or if they are in 
a liquid state, you will throw them in the reservoir of saturated water. 

Article Fourth. — Hot-beds for early Gardening. — Mode of reviving the Heat 
under the Beds, without changing the Litter. 

Gardeners, whose lively interest it is to produce early crops, and consequently 
to produce properly graduated manure for their hot-beds, and to revive the heat 
under their beds without changing the litter, should proceed as follows : — 

So as not to wet the bed in which the seeds are sown, and which you may 
not care to have wet, pour on the lye from time to time, and about a foot apart, 
by means of a funnel, whose point should rest upon the ground after having 
penetrated into the litter. 

Before introducing the funnel into the earth, you should take care to fill up 
the tube with a plug, which should project about an inch beyond the end of the 
tube. 

Concerning the sides of the beds, you should always have warm manure made 
after this method, in order to reanimate the exterior of the hot-beds. 

It is here that manure of a high graduation is necessary, since the fruits are 
wanted in advance of the seasons. 

In the preparation of their manures, gardeners ought to employ largely the 
remains of animals. 

They will reap great advantage from placing, in the middle of their manure 
heap, spoiled fish, dead animals, refuse fat, and the like. The more these parts 
predondnate, in alliance with other materials which compose the lye, the more 
they will yield to the manure essential qualities, which rapidly develop all the 
stages of a vigorous and precocious vegetation. 

Gardeners residing near large cities, not practising the economy of the far- 
mers, will, by the aid of this method, obtain results which will surpass their 
hopes. It is with this juice of the manure-heap, or pure leaven, that they water 
their hot-beds, to maintain a constant heat without changing the litter. 

When they shall have placed in their manure-heaps the remains of animals 
of which we have spoken, they should not omit to give to ii three or four water- 
ings, or more, after the fifteenth day ; that is to say, after the manure is made. 

The purpose of these waterings is to extract all the " leaven" for the employ- 
ment of it on the hot-beds of early vegetables. They should preserve this 
leaven in their hogsheads, after having, previous to covering them, thrown in a \ 
few pounds of quick lime, and a little powdered charcoal, to render the leaven 
inodorous. 



END OF THE FIRST PART OF THE METHOD 



PART SECOND. 

EXPLANATION AND ANALYTICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM— SOLU- 
TION OF MANURE aUESTIONS, AND SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES WHICH 
Pi-ESULT FROM THIS SYSTEM.* 

SECTION FIRST. 

1 . Vegr.tahlc, compared to animal manure. 

2. Fermeritalioii. 

3. Appropriation of the Bomrner manure to various soils. 

4. Appropriation of Bomrner manure to different plants. 

5. Solution of the problem put by Puyen, the celebrated Chemist. 

6. Food of plants, and of what they are composed. 

7. Vegetable metempsychosis, or transmutation of a dead into a living vegetable. 

8. Economy. 

Article First. — Vegetable, compared to Animal Manure. 

Question. The title of your method says, that your "vegetable manure is as 

good, and more durable than cattle manure ;" yet it is acknowledged that cattle 

manure is the true natural manure, and consequently the most proper for the 

\ nourishment of the soil and plants. I should then think, that, since the animal 

I principle only comes in as an element of the leaven in your liquid combinations, 

and in a small quantity, you have your manure composed almost entirely of 

J vegetables. Now, it seems to me, that since your vegetable manure contains init 

I liitle azote, it would be inferior to cattle manure, which contains a large quantity. 

What say you ? 

Reply. Animal manure, properly so called, and according to the most com- 
mon expression, is nothing more than a reunion of mucilaginous substances, 
decomposed by the ammonia which abounds in the animal kind, and which l)y 
fermentation becomes, in a few weeks, an unctuous putrefaction. As are the 
J manures of cattle, so would also be hay or straw decomposed by urine, by hnrse- 
(lung, and by feculent materials, if they should be applied in combination, in 

* In order to render it peifeclly clear, and within the reach of the meanest capacity, I hnve 

! iliven the explanaiion of this method in the form of an agricultural dialogue, in which the 

) advantasres resulting fiom its use are developed, and some questions in regard to manure 

\ treated. Chemists, and other "jentlemen of science, who may find in this work some passages 

which to them may not liave the merit of novelty, should take into consideration tliat it is 

(Ipsisned fir practical men, to whom the plough does not give time to undertake a course oi" 

cbeinistry, or to study the treatises of our celebrated agricultural writers. 



32 bommer's method 

proportions sufficient to cause their fermentation and putrefaction in a seasonable 
time. Such is the common definition given by chemists to animal manure. 

We will now examine, by sound reasoning, and endeavor to discover which 
of the two manures are richer in fertilizing substances, and see which presents 
the most advantages to agriculture ; whether it be the manure from cattle, or 
that which is made after this method. 

Cattle manure, uniformly decomposed, is excellent in its primitive state ; that 
is to say, when fresh. Put into the earth in this state it will in general produce 
a good result. But everybody knows the obstacles which are opposed to the 
application of cattle manure in a fresh state, and they know also that such a 
system would be impracticable upon farms. 

Cattle manure is only obtained little by little, and it follows, 

1st. That its decomposition is always unequal and imperfect. 

2d. Put into a heap, as it is taken from the stables and farm-yard, where it 
is suffered to remain from one season to another, putting layer after layer of \ 
vegetables upon it ; trampled upon by the cattle, as is the custom on most farms, 
this manure, by the slow and prolonged fermentation which it undergoes, by 
evaporation, the washing of rains, and drying of the sun, will sustain a loss of 
fertilizing substances which can hardly be calculated at less than one half. 

You have, then, on one hand, its insufficiency, and, on the other, deteriora- 
tion ; whence it results that this manure is but a small help to agriculture, 
while our vegetable manure is not submitted to these inconveniences, its pro- 
duction not depending upon cattle. 

Sec. 1. First Advantage of the Bommer Manure oxier that of Cattle. 

After this method, any one may manufacture his manure at will, at any time 
he may want it, instead of obtaining it little by little from cattle, and suffering 
it to deteriorate in the air, or by an unlimited fermentation which produces the 
same effects as combustion, and leaves only some earthy residues for salt. 

He may with certainty regulate his manures, that is to say, he may render 
them equally good, in all their parts, by means of the lye, which distributes its 
salts to its soluble parts, in a regular and uniform manner ; it produces an equal 
crop in all parts of the field, while to this day, farm manure, being unequal in 
quality, some portions of the crop are poor, and others good, in the same ground. 

By the copious waterings of the manure with our lye, the heap is kept from 
becoming white, or mouldering, because an equal moisture is maintained in all 
its parts, forming a soft and blackish mass in which one part does not depend 
upon the other for either aliment or moisture, as is the case with cattle manure. 

You can make manures much more durable in the earth, than those which 
you buy, or which are made with the aid of cattle. 

You are aware that different substances, which are decomposed slowly anrl 
successively, having been intimately mixed together, and disunited by a liquid, 
are bound to form various aggregates, which the earth can only decompose 
slowly and in succession. 

You may destroy, by a short, but lively and rapid fermentation, the germs of 
weeds, which always infest the materials of which manure is composed. 



i FOR MAKING MANURE. 33* 

This Method gives rules for the composition of manures ; it says to you — 
take so many parts of animal matter, so much salt, so much alkali, which may 
vary according to the soil and the plants you are cultivating : with it, the incon- 
veniences resulting from the employment of cattle manure can no longer pre- 
sent themselves. Thus, the vegetable manure should be better than that of 
cattle, if you so desire it. 

Sec. 2. Second Advantage. 

If the cattle manure contains more azote than our vegetable manure, ours 
contains more carbon, a principle still more necessary to plants than azote, as 
carbon supplies the main structure of all vegetables. 

Well, carbon predominates in our manure, and our lye renders it soluble, by a 

a regulated fermentation, which it engenders in the mass of vegetables, and 

I when the woody body becomes soluble by fermentation, the plant which is 

manured by it feeds upon this carbonaceous substance, through its nutritive 

organs. 

If I wished imposing authorities to support me in this, I would cite Sir 
Humphrey Davy, the celebrated chemist, who says, page 280 of his treatise 
upon the art of preparing lands — "No substance is more necessary to vegetables 
than carbon ; it ought to be dissolved in order to penetrate their organs." Thus, 
the manure which you administer to plants should contain carbon rather than 
azote, because plants, by their leaves, have no difficulty in imbibing azote from 
the air, which contains a large quantity of it, but very little carbonic acid gas. 

Sec. 3. Third Advantage. 

If I have said, at the ofTstart, that our vegetable manure is as good as cattle 
manure, it was, that I might not be exposed to the charge of exaggeration, by 
those who could not have proved it. But, in truth, in declaring that our vege- 
table manure is superior to cattle manure, I would but obey my convictions, 
because its effects in the ground have always been superior, and I here give the 
causes of its great power. 

By the mixture of the materials which enter into the composition of our lye, 
the water, the heaped vegetables, the high fermentation, &c., there is produced 
a large quantity of the nitrate of lime, caustic potash, ammonia, and saltpetre ; 
four principles, known by chemists as the most active manure which exists. 

In regard to the first two materials, learned chemists have often analyzed the 
lye, and they have found that the first two prevailing principles which it con- 
tained, were nitrate of lime and caustic potash. 

You may ask me, how are these two principles formed in my lye ? But I 
will not undertake to say ; I fear that I might be led astray. Nothing is more 
mysterious than the secrets employed by nature in her combinations. All that I 
know positively (and it is the most necessary to know), is the fact. 

As to the two other materials, it is easy to conceive that ammonia and salt- 
petre should be found in our manure, in larger quantities than in ordinary farm 
manure — in fact, ammonia, being composed of azote and hydrogen, can form ] 
itself into a heap of manure. It is easy to judge, by the simple disposition of 



/ 34 bommer's method ^ 

my heap, raised above the soil six or ten feet, that the azote of the surroun-ling i 
air, which is found in circulation in a heap of manure not matured, that 's to ^ 
say, before the sinking produced by fermentation, is not deficient in my opera- 
tion, since the air contains 79 per cent, of azote. On the other hand, as water s 
contains a large quantity of hydrogen, this is no more deficient than the azote, 
since my waterings are floods — thence it seems to me that ammonia forms 
in quantities, after a lively and rapid fermentation of diflferent vegetable bodies 
and mineral salts, put into contact with volumes of hydrogen and nitrogen, 
which gases, besides, are found in quantities, not only in the air and water, 
but they compose a large part of the vegetables and minerals themselves, and 
especially green vegetables, which recent studies of our chemists have discov- 
ered to contain azote. 

You see the reason why, when I stir my heap, it disengages an ammoniacal 
smell much stronger than stable manure, even when I do not employ feculent or 
animal materials. 

It is impossible, with a fermentation of 160 to 210 degrees of Fahrenheit, 
and the collection of a large body of fermentous materials, and a considerable 
volume of surrounding air and water, that it should not form much ammonia. 

The production of saltpetre is explained in the sixth chapter, upon " artificial 
nitres." 

I hope that these data will enlighten you upon the causes which give strength 
to my manure, and enable you to render an account of its efljects upon the 
ground, when you can employ it. 

Sec. 4. Fourth Advantage. 

All farmers accord in arranging into two distinct classes the various means 
of ameliorating lands, or of repairing the exhaustion which improvident cultiva- 
tion has produced. These are — 

First. Manures : 

Second. Amendments. 

Amendments are, in many cases, very proper to sustain the vegetation of 
plants, because not only vegetation consumes the manure, which will insure its 
prosperity, but it also exhausts those mineral substances which, although spread 
in the soil in small proportions, are not the less sustainers of the life, the sap, 
or the luxuriant growth of plants. It is for this purpose that people have intro- 
duced marl, lime, plaster, salt, &c., upon their farms ; afterward, the product of 
vegetables decomposed by fire, as potash, soda, soot, ashes, &c. ! 

But these substances are always employed without intermixture, although 
most plants for their success, and the most part of soils for their fertility, J 
demanded their mixture and their decomposition. i 

But if the mixture of these mineral substances in the soil produces a good \ 
result, how much could we improve all our lands by a composition uniting \ 
manure with the substances which constitute the amendment, especially in pro- ; 
portions suitable to the wants of the various soils and plants. 

Without doubt, this composition, skilfully combined, will become the ne plus \ 
ultra of the amelioration of lands, since it at once unites all the means of 
stimulating and fertilizing the soil. \ 

U 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 35 

Well, such is the composition of my vegetable manure, and such are its 
effects, although without cattle, because, in effect, my manures contain, inde- 
pendently of the manure which is furnished by the feculent material, as animal 
decomposition, all the mineral amendments that you have seen in the table, and 
that you have judged useful to plants, since in your agricultural experience you 
have already employed either the one or the other. Is it not so ? 

Resuming your question. I believe that I have sufficiently demonstrated to 
you that my vegetable manure is not inferior to cattle manure, but that, on the 
contrary, it is superior, seeing that it contains principles of fecundity which 
cattle manure does not possess ; that it is more natural than cattle manure, 
since air, water, vegetables, and minerals, are the base of its fabrication, and 
these are the substances which nature has designed for the nourishment of 
plants, rather than urine and the dung of animals. 

Article Second. — Fermentation. 

Question. The title of your method assumes, also, that any one can make 
your vegetable manure by fermention in fifteen days, and according to the nature 
of every farm and every family of plants. Now, to appropriate my manure to 
such or such kind of soil, or to such or such plants, should it ferment much, 
little, or not at all, how should I do ? 

Answer. This is the gravest question that you could make upon the subject 
of manures ; and of a verity, without the aid of my method, I would not permit 
myself to treat upon a subject which has been discussed and debated by the 
most celebrated agriculturists without any definitive result. One says, " Yes, 
it should be fermented :" the other says, " No, it should not be fermented." — I, 
apart from my new principle, to vary the manures, to manufacture it either with- 
out fermentation or with fermentation, graduated according to the soil and plants, 
say yes and no. In the arts, the medium course is sometimes the only good 
way. Perhaps I may approach nearer to the truth than all the others who have 
treated upon this matter. 

English authors, French, German, and others who have treated upon this 
question, not only in theory but in practice, have all given facts, without ever 
having analyzed the kind of earth where they had buried the manures, fresh or 
decomposed, and equally without having announced what were the plants to 
which they had administered it. Even then the question is new. It has been 
discussed, and even disputed with violence, and every one has doubted of the 
truth up to this moment, seeing that the veil which covers it has never yet been 
lifted. I will quote the words of the greatest farmers, and you will pardon me 
a little longer in consideration of the importance of the subject. 

OPINION OF AUTHORS. 

An intelligent farmer, Mr. Pictet, expresses himself in these terms in Young's 
Annals : — 

" I have always been in the practice of throwing the fresh manure from the 



r 



36 bommer's method 

stables into a heap, and not carrying it into the fields until after it shall have 
become decomposed. I began to doubt that this practice could augment its 
value. I had not doubted for a long while that it had lost in quantity, and that 
I had been at an increased expense. The first essay that I made of the appli- 
cation of fresh manure succeeded so well, that I not only resolved to abandon 
an old practice, but I also found a number of imitators among my neighbors, 
who, convinced by the evidence of the results, had not employed as much as 
they might their manure when fresh. An experience of more than seven years 
has convinced me of this truth, that it is profitable to employ manures as soon as 
they are taken from the stables." 

The principal English and Scotch fanners consulted upon this subject by 
Mr. De Knobelsdorf, in the last few years, were unanimous. It is decided, 
they all say, by theory as well as by practice, that manure applied before fer- 
mentation, as it is making itseli, with the mixture of excrements with litter, 
better manures soil destined for all kinds of grain and leguminous plants, and that 
its immediate application prevents the loss of more than one fourth of the mass. 

The excellent practical farmer Schmaltz is of the same opinion, in his work, 
entitled, " Observations dans le domaine de Veconomie rurale." He expresses 
himself thus : — 

" Manure much consumed, compared to that which has just entered into its 
decomposition, loses a large portion of its volume. It is difficult to spread it 
well, as it requires so much labor and care to separate it, and there are no 
means of insuring its equal division. I have always been struck in observing 
the very sensible effects attending manures the least consumed. When, for 
example, there has been put upon a field eight cart-loads of very rich short 
manure entirely rotten, and to another of the same size only six cart-loads of 
the same weight of fresher manure, but not so broken, not only the products of 
the second were very often much better, but the manure was more durable in its 
effects, although the six cart-loads of fresh manure would have made but five 
if it had been left to rot further. This observation I have not made only upon 
particular soils, but upon all kinds of lands. However, it was generally more 
evident in favor of manure a little consumed upon heaA'y than upon light and 
friable lands. The effect of manures thus applied was especially marked upon 
products which did not immediately follow the manuring." 

Sir Humphrey Davy, Martin, Puvis, and others, are of the same opinion as 
Schmaltz, director of the royal institution of Wurtemberg. There are only a 
very few authors of a contrary opinion ; but almost all farmers desire their 
manure to be very rotten — that is to say, science and intelligent practice are at 
complete variance with the popular practice. What is more, whoever would 
undertake to persuade a farmer that manure much decomposed was not worth 
as much as that which has just come from the stable, and which is almost whole, 
would be taxed with folly. 

MY OPINION. 

Well, it would be boldness in me to condemn either the one or the other. 
Each is a little wrong ; each has some reason upon his side. It goes to show 



tliat nothing is absolute in arts, and that the present method is the master-key, 
by the help of which each one can enter the domains of reality. 

It is then shown that one desires fresh manure, and the other old. Who will 
undertake to reconcile all these opinions without relying upon this method ? 

But see a remark which has never been produced ; it is, that in the examina- 
tion of the question, Should one ferment his manures ? they do not draw a line 
of demarcation betAveen manures that are fermented and those which are not. 
Thus, one may think proper to call that manure fresh which is just drawn from 
under the cattle. But have a care : this manure is already fermented, and 
often much fermented. It in some measure resembles that which is produced 
in my heap in about fifteen days : you may call this manure fresh, but you 
should say warjn, for the man who extracts it is surrounded by a thick smoke. 
Now certainly this manure, ploughed in this state, is excellent, and that is not 
at all surprising. The litter enclosed in a warm stable, watered by the urine of 
cattle, when exposed to the air, will ferment rapidly in a {ew days ; the more so 
that the cows and horses, in lying down upon it, communicate heat to the litter 
from the surface of their bodies, which are in contact with it. Thus, that is not 
fresh manure — it is matured manure. It is certainly less advanced than that 
which remains in a state of fermentation in the barn-yard for six months, but it 
is such as it generally should be for extensive farming. 

Therefore has the question not been properly put, either by learned or by 
practical men. Before you can know whether fresh manure is preferable to 
fermented manure, it is necessary to commence by defining the two kinds of 
manure, in order to compare them. For want of this previous definition, this 
point has been discussed for an age without its being cleared up, without having 
advanced even a single step. 

According to my view, the question should be thus put : " Ought the elements 
of manure to be ploughed in before having been attacked by fermentation ?" or, 
" Should you plough them in their natural state ?" Then had the question been 
defined, and the opinions of cultivators explained, because it should have rested 
upon incontestable facts ; and I add, that it was the only means to discover, by 
experience, if it was more useful and more economical to cover in the elements 
of manure in their natural state, or after having been fermented. The solution 
of this point is of great interest, but this solution will always be relative ; that 
is to say, according to the climate, the nature of the soil, and of the plants. 

I will say, then, to those authors whose words I have cited, and who are for 
the employment of fresh manures, as well as to the others who are for having 
them much decomposed, you are all misled in proclaiming for truth the specious 
facts announced by you. You chemists proclaim principles which appear to be 
well founded, and which perhaps are so in theory, but you do not occupy your- 
selves with their execution. And it is because this execution is difficult in 
practice, that almost all agriculturists are for having their manures matured. 
Thus, go to any farmer who desires to convert his cornstalks, or other hard and 
ligneous bodies, and say to him that fermentation is dangerous in this way, that 
it will cause the loss of a part of the elements of manure, this man will listen 
to you, then he will smile, in saying, " Try, then, to make me manure out of 



38 bommer's method 

substances as hard as wood, without the aid of fermentation. You say that I 
will lose in causing these vegetables to ferment : that is possible, but at least the 
greater part of them will be converted into soluble manure, while, in this state ; 
with your principles, these vegetables are useless, and I lose all. And if j^ou 
talk to me of straw manure (from litter), would you that every day it should be 
taken out from the stable, and carried into the field, especially when it is not 
the season to cover in manure ? How prevent the inevitable fermentation which 
develops itself, if I put it in a heap — or the maceration, every bit as destructible, 
if I should spread my stable manure upon the ground 1" 

What reply have you to make, gentlemen chemists, to this strong argument ? 
There is more or less loss. Without doubt, chemistry is right ; but this science 
does not teach us to make it better. The straw itself, when it has not been 
broken down by fermentation, can not be used. I maintain, then, that fermenta- 
tion, should it lose still more than chemists are willing to allow, is indispensable 
to break down and disorganize the vegetable body ; at least in general, for there 
are some particular cases where fermentation will not be necessary, and where 
all authors are in the right. 

It is certain that in soils which we call " voracious," nothing will be better 
than simply watering this barn-yard straw with a good lye of the method, and 
then ploughing it in, without previous fermentation. But, saving in this par- 
ticular case, fermentation is indispensable, as it is a substitute for the mastica- 
tion of animal food. 

Thus, in resuming, we have on one side almost all the learned men, and on 
the other all the practical farmers. Science is right in principle — farmers are 
right in practice. As I am of the opinion of neither the one nor the other : it 
may seem dangerous to put forth my principles, but I only do so in obedience to 
my convictions. 



x\rticle Third. — Application of my Manure according to various Earths. 

1st. Have you a light earth — warm — sandy — voracious? Do not ferment 
the vegetables, especially if they should be green ; but, before covering them 
in, try to break them, and water them with my lye. If the earth is only light, 
without being voracious, employ the manure much decomposed, so as to unite 
the soil. 

2d. Should your ground be cold or clayey, ferment by my process for a 
month, if you employ ligneous vegetables or other hard bodies, and only for 
fifteen days if you should use nothing but straw or grasses. Make four water- 
ings of the lye for ligneous bodies, and only three for straw and herbaceous 
vegetables. 

3d. Should your soil be intermediate between the two kinds which I have 
mentioned — that is to say, is it half sandy and half clayey, approaching a free 
soil — ferment the vegetables a little less than for cold grounds. 

4th. If your soil is calcareous, or if you have previously used lime upon it, 
as is the custom of many farmers, you can not ferment it too much, because the 



lime contained in the soil will assist in the decomposition of the materials of 
manure. 

5th. If your soil is deprived of limestone, push forward the fermentation, and 
I double the lime, or triple it, in the composition of the lye. 

6th. In all soils where the ordinary manures develop Aveeds and noxious 
plants, you should give a vigorous strength to the fermentation, in order to 
destroy the germs of the seeds. These are my principles. 

I now come to the exceptions Avhich I make to the five rules given above. 

1st. I have said that for light, warm, sandy, or voracious earths, you ought not 
to ferment the vegetables, especially if they are green ; but for that, for such 
lands, it is necessary to put in the manure before winter, in order that the lig- 
neous bodies may have time to soften and to ferment by the aid of the rains of 
that season. Thus, this rule, which I believe to be good in most cases, would 
be worth nothing to the gardener. To him I would say, always have old 
manure for the soil of which I speak ; prepare it in advance. Old manure 
contains less ammonia, but in compensation it contains more salts, and this rich 
manure will unite a light earth ; it will be good also as an amendment ; it will 
! diminish the porosity of a soil which is too accessible to the influences of the 
air, and which dries too quick. On the other side, this rich and old manure, 
by means of the salts which it contains, and which attracts and preserves its 
moisture, will keep the roots of the plants in a state of freshness very favorable 
to the prompt development of the plant. But if you are a cultivator of grain, it 
is evident that you ought to choose manure of longer duration, because you sow 
in autumn. Now, in the spring, when your plants shall want nourishing prin- 
ciples, to operate for the reproduction of the grain (a phenomenon in which 
nature develops all her forces), the plant will have the facility to draw in from 
a slowly-dissolving manure, the elements of which they stand in need. 

2d. I have said, in the second place, that for cold or clayey grounds you 
ought to cause a high degree of fermentation for ligneous materials ; the reason 
is, that a compact earth will never have enough warmth to digest, easily and 
promptly, the nourishment which you consign to it. I know well, that what is 
called fresh manure, or little fermented, such as occupies a large volume, but 
of little weight, is exactly suited to soils which have need of being divided. I 
know very well, that where this long manure has been held in a compact soil, 
it should divide the clay, and permit the air to penetrate it ; but, on the other 
hand, it may happen that this long manure, little fermented, will decompose, but 
with great difficulty, and that it will not be profitable to the crop upon which it 
is cast. The manure will not be entirely lost to the second crop, because the 
simimer sun completes the work, and renders this manure soluble for the next 
second crop; but, in the meanwhile, a part of the carbon will volatilize, and 
your first crop will only have given slight products. 

The difficulties are so grave, that I have not hesitated to choose for cold and 
clayey grounds, manures reasonably decomposed. At the same time, I admit 
of some exceptions, remarking that I am not in glaring contradiction to the 
general opinion of farmers, because what they call fresh manure, or manure 
such as it comes from the stables, is manure very near like that of my method. 



40 bommer's method 

after fifteen days fermentation. Thus, for spring sowing, do not hesitate to push 
the fermentation farther, to suffer the materials to remain in the heap eight or 
ten days longer for cold, argillaceous, and compact soils, because time presses 
you, the soil is so inactive, and the dressing of its aliments should be more 
complete. If, on the contrary, in the same soil, you wish to cultivate plants 
which remain a long while in the ground, you only let your heap ferment for 
fifteen days. There you employ what they call fresh manure, only you should 
take care to make your lye more unctuous, stronger, and richer, to the effect that 
the grain may thereby find an aliment in the folds of vegetable manure, and can 
germinate with rapidity and vigor. The result will then be, that the elements 
of manure, decomposing little by little, and progressively, the roots of the plant 
will find food regularly up to harvest. 

You pursue the same course for the sugar-cane, the cotton-tree, the mulberry- 
tree, and for all plants which remain a long while in the soils ; also for orchards 
and nurseries. 

3d. In the third place I have said, that if the soil was intermediate between 
sandy and clayey, that is to say, if it approaches free soil, you should give a 
little less fermentation to the manure. There, it is thought, that since this soil 
contains sand to give access to the air, and that the materials of the maimre 
being a little fermented, they ought to decompose with sufficient facility. Here 
I am again very near in agreement with science, although not exactly so. I am 
not dogmatic, and I still admit of some exceptions, as to the plants which are 
cultivated, and as to the climate. Thus, if in this soil you wish to cultivate 
flax, hemp, tobacco, and other plants, which ought to remain but a little while in 
the ground, do not waver about pushing still farther the fermentation in your 
manure-heap. But if you desire to cultivate in this soil plants which are to 
remain a long while in the ground, give it only a small amount of fermentation ; 
stop it the tenth day. If you intend to put in your manure before winter, cause 
but little fermentation, and stop it the eighth day, or after the second watering. 

4th. Should your soil be very calcareous, make your manure rich, ferment it 
but little, stop after the first watering, because the lime is already a fermenter, 
from which the elements of manure can not escape in the soil. 

5ih. Should your soil want lime, push the fermentation vigorously, because, 
in this soil, you would miss this most precious agent to complete the fermenta- 
tion of the buried vegetables, and double or triple the quantity of lime in your 
lye, but do not neglect to observe the influences of climate. Thus, in southern 
states, a soil mav want lime and still be warm, especially if it is much exposed 
to the sun, a hill-side exposure, or of a black color, because in this case it 
absorbs caloric. 

6th. In fine, I have laid down as a principle, that in all soils which are 
infested with noxious weeds, and especially in neglected soils, and in the south- 
ern states where the heat tends to multiply all seeds which are carried there by 
the winds, you should submit the manure to a vigorous fermentation, so that 
these manures may not add to the foul weeds which spring up in the fields, from 
the germs which they would otherwise contain, and which flourish with more 
facility and power when they are surrounded by the principles of manure. 



r 



FOR MAKING- MANURE. 41 



But here presents an objection, which you will not fail to make. You say to 
me, "You advance the principle that in a number of cases we should scarcely 
ferment the m;inure at all. Now if, on the other hand, you tell us to submit all 
manure to a vigorous fermentation, in order to destroy the germ of various seeds, 
you are in contradiction to yourself." 

To this I will reply, that it is possible to destroy the germs of all various 

seeds, without causing the materials to ferment for any length of time. As for 

example, I wish a manure a very little decomposed, but at the same time, I wish 

I to destroy the noxious seeds which may be found in my materials. I operate 

; thus : I make a rich lye, by which I produce a rapid fermentation, which in 

i four or five days raises to 170 or 190 degrees Fahrenheit. The germs of all 

I hurtful weeds are destroyed, and I use my manure the sixth day. The same 

I as if I had produced a strong fire, for boiling beans, and keeping the water at 

210 degrees for a few seconds, I had taken off the vessel, immediately after the 

f ebullition : the vegetables would not be cooked, but the germ of the bean would 

be destroyed. 
I Now this manure will be very little decomposed, very little gas will be dissi- 
pated, and the less from my heap, as, from its being closed in by earthy sub- 
stances, the gases are retained and absorbed in their passage. 

CONCLUSION. 

Chemists, who have stated with so much precision the loss in manures which 
f is occasioned by fermentation, have not operated upon my heap, and it is cer- 
tain that, if they rendered their experiments upon a heap of my manure, well 
prepared, they would acknowledge that in it the loss is almost nothing. 

So, then, have I modified all the calculations of the chemists upon the ques- 
tion, " Should manure be fermented ?" I have completely displaced the ques- 
tion, and, if on one hand, I prove by my mode of operating, that notwithstand- 
ing a considerable fermentation, ray heap scarcely loses anything in its fertilizing 
substances, and if, on the other side, I confirm that by my vigorous fermentation, 
and directed by my will, I replace the effect of the trampling of cattle, and in 
rendering soluble vegetables, the most obstinate to decompose, I believe that I 
have rendered the most important service to agriculture. 

I have ended this discussion, and perhaps, reader, you may demand of me, 
how it is that an unassuming farmer can put forth his opinion, with sufficient 
hardihood, upon a matter so delicate, and upon which the best authors have been 
of different opinions ? 

Without doubt it would be temerity on my part to throw my voice into the 
balance. But, reader, do not forget that I claim, under anew principle, that my 
method is nothing less than the study of the laws of fermentation, a part of 
physics, into which science, to this day, has the least penetrated, and which is, 
perhaps, all ihe mystery of life. Man reads in the stars — he measures with 
certait)ty the distance which separates us from the sun ; but demand of him the 
real cause of fermentation, by the aid of which all organized beings are formed, 
decomposed, and reconstituted, and he will be hushed into silent meditation. 




Demand of him how the dung of the cow is metamorphosed into odorous 
flowers ?-^how it is that a grain, decomposed, and elaborated by nature, becomes 
man — thought — genius — a Descarte — a Corneille — a Washington — a Napo- 
leon — the voice of science remains mute, and it is to be feared, that thousands 
of ages will yet pass without revealing the truth to future generations. 

What then should we do, in waiting for the discovery of this cause ? Occupy 
ourselves with the fact. Fermentation exists ; let us study its laws, its various 
phases, and by its different application, let us convert vegetables into fruit, into 
grain, into cattle — let us help nature to produce life, populations will augment, 
and with this growth of the mind, perhaps a day of genius, aided by the always 
growing force of civilization, may pierce the mysteries which veil from our 
sight the profoundest secrets of nature.* 

Article Fourth. — Application of my Manure, according to the Nature of the Plant. 

Till now, the idea of administering to plants a nourishment proportioned to 
the duration of their existing in the ground, had not occurred to any one. The 
same manure was applied to plants which remained but three months in the soil, 
to the flower which had but a month to live, as to the plants which abided a year 
and more in the earth, before rendering their produce. We must agree that it 
was not very rational, but people could do no better. 

This method opens the way, and teaches how to compose manures, and to 
vary them, not only according to the voracity of the plant, but according to its 
duration in the ground. Thus, in the case where one wishes to push the plants 
which remain but a little time in the ground, it is necessary to compose a hot 
manure, rendered immediately soluble, in order that the plant may be quick, 
large, and ripe. If, on the contrary, you cultivate plants which remain a long 
time in the earth, you should compose a manure with materials which decom- 
pose slowly and successively. Thus, a perfect manure for these plants would 
be that which would be fabricated out of the greatest variety of vegetables, and 
diflicult to decompose ; you put all the elements of the lye, which, by their 
agglomeration, form its force, and of which each material is decomposed little 
by little, and successfully, and you should add horn shavings, ground bones, 
leather shavings, &c., &c., in order that these plants may never want nourish- 
ment. If you plant the mulberry, the cotton-tree, sugar-cane, fruit nurseries, 
you act the same. In fact, the young plant wants a soluble manure with it, but 
at first it should have but little ; afterward a second material decomposes, then a 
third, then a fourth, till at last it comes to the most diflicult of decomposition ; 
and it will no longer be necessary to manure the plant each year, or to expose 
it to that which will check its prosperity. 

It is necessary that the manure should be distributed, like nourishment to the 
infant, which is first fed with milk, and afterward with aliments more substan- 
tial, as age develops its constitution — such is the advance of nature, she pro- 
ceeds only by degrees. 

* To enable any one to execute what is communicated in this article, it is necessary to know 
the nature of the ground which is to be cultivated. To this effect, the process by which each 
one can analyze his lands, may be found in chapter 1st of the supplementary articles. 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 

Article Fifth. — Solution of the Problem put by the celebrated Payen. 

But a short time since, this celebrated chemist wrote in a French agricultural 
journal, that the art of manure consists in the avoidance of the too great solubility 
of materials which decompose too easily, and to render soluble those which 
decompose with too much difficulty. Well, this problem is resolved by the 
present method; my system is nothing more than the realization of Mr. Payen. 
If I have straw or hay, which decomposes too quickly, I water them with a lye, 
which incorporates the unctuous solid materials with earthy salts and alkalies, 
and this manure, in being soluble, lasts longer than herbaceous bodies or straw. 

If I have hard and woody vegetables, I water them with my mordant lye 
which attacks them, macerates them, and renders them soluble in a little time. 

Article Sixth. — Nourishment of Plants, and of what they are composed. 

It is known, not only that plants take nourishment from the soil by their roots, | 
but also that they take a large part from the air by their leaves, organs con- i 
structed for this purpose. Now, the larger the leaf, the more facility has the 
plant in taking its azotic nourishment, as it is principally nitrogen which it 
imbibes from the air. And it follows very evidently from this, that the larger 
the surface of the leaf, the better state is the plant in to derive its aerial nour- 
ishment. This remark, which is not new, may possibly beget one which shall 
have some novelty. 

Since the nourishment of plants is composed of humus, of carbonic acid gas, 
of nitrogen, salt, &c., and that plants with large leaves have greater facility 
than those with narrow and pinnated leaves to imbibe nitrogen, carbonic acid 
gas, and other gases which form the base of humus, you should put, in the lye 
destined for the first, more of the alkaline salts ; and in that destined for the 1 
second, more of unctuous substances, and containing a larger quantity of humus. 

Thus, in lye intended to manure pumpkins, potatoes, corn, tobacco, and other 
plants with large leaves, you should make the salts and alkalies prevail over the 
animal parts. On the contrary, in hemp, grain, and all the grasses, the animal | 
parts, or such as contain the most humus, should predominate. 

You see why moulds, mixtures of plaster, ashes, &c., are better suited to 
natural and artificial meadows than animal parts, or those charged with humus. 
The only decomposition of roots which die in the meadows are sufliciently filled 
with humus, but they want exciters ; they are the digestive salts of a thick and 
engorged sap. This is the reason why so many farmers acknowledge the good 
effects of ashes and plaster upon their meadows. 

Article Seventh. — Vegetable Metempsychosis, or Transmutation of a Dead 

into a Living Vegetable. 

Question. Do you not think that it would be rational to employ for com- 
posts, and whenever it is possible in vegetable decompositions, the stalks of 
the same plants which this manure will be destined to produce, because I am 



44 bommer's method 



persuaded that the decomposition of a particular vegetable will be better adapted 
than any other to the prosperity of its like, in the new production? 

Answer. In general, everything appropriated to another, suits it better than 
if chance alone had caused their junction. Now, if we replace the natural 
manure of animals, which is applied, almost without examination, to the culture 
of all plants indiscriminately, by a rational manure ; that is to say, in the com- 
position of which enter substances of a nature analogous to those which form 
the structure, or the product of the plants which are cultivated, it is inevitable 
that we should prepare for these plants the elements of their existence, their 
increase, and their prosperity. Thus, at all times it has been remarked, that 
the straw employed as litter, and as manure, was perfectly suited to the culture 
of wheat. The reason they were ignorant of, but I think that it is altogether 
natural. 

Without throwing myself into scientific discussions, wheat straw contains 
various elements, and particularly salts, potash, and lime. If manure, buried 
under a piece of corn, does not contain the principles which T have pointed out, 
nature will make an extraordinary effort to procure for the corn plant the ele- 
ments of which it is in need, and which she, nevertheless, finds, whether it be 
in the earth, in the air, or in combinations of which we are ignorant. But if, 
in place of resigning this to the sole charge of nature, man places at the foot of 
this plant principles such as constitute it, nature will have less eflbrts to make, 
the plant having near that which it wants, nourishes itself with more facility 
and power. 

This is why straw manure, ashes, feculent materials, in which the decompo- 
sition of straw and grains preponderate, cause the grain of wheat to prosper, 
which contains much phosphate of lime. So, to take another example, it is 
known that plaster acts upon leguminous plants, peas, beans, clover, &c. ; but 
science has given rise to thousands of discussions to discover the cause of the 
effect, and upon this science has not advanced beyond us. This is a secret of 
nature which mortals have not yet been able to penetrate. As to myself, what 
does it import me to know why and how plaster acts upon legumes, vegetables, 
as well as forage ? I only wish to follow facts. 

Is it true that when we observe that a principle or element is useful to a 
plant, it is necessary to furnish it ? 

The reply can be only in the affirmative. Since the legumes have a partiality 
for plaster, we make it predominate in the composition of our lye. If afterward 
you desire to know why it is that legumes are partial to plaster, I can only 
mention the incontestable fact, that if we analyze leguminous plants, we will 
discover that they contain more plaster than other plants. 

It is thus that, little by little, I will give to my readers the analytical results 
of the principles which prevail in plants, and it will be easy for every one to 
judge what are the elements which he should add to his lye to prepare it for 
composts, and for the conversion of vegetable into manure. 

If it merely depended, at all times, upon the transcription of the material 
analysis of each family of plants, I could avail myself of tables which already 
exist, and where this analysis is made ; but I wish, after my own experiments 




FOR MAKING MANURE. 45 

in the ground, to test if the experiment is in accordance with the declarations of 
science, the only means of never being deceived. 

This career which I have opened is larger than, at first, will be believed, but 
with time, labor, perseverance, and the assistance of farmers who are willing 
to second me by their own essays, in the different states, we will attain the goal. 

Article Eighth. — Economy. 

Question. The title of your method further says, that your system is eco- 
nomical. Will you be good enough to point out in what consists this economy ? 

Answer. Always, when one makes his own manure, in place of buying it, 
and when he manufactures the elements of its composition without cost, that is 
to say, in using that which is on the place, and which is often suffered to go to 
Avaste, economy is insured. 

Whenever any manufactory whatever is first organized, the benefits are 
almost always less the first year than in subsequent years. This is like the 
adoption of a new system, and naturally all innovation is accompanied with a 
little sacrifice at its introduction. It is necessary to organize the workshop, 
purchase the tools, instruct Avorkmen, and form schools. Now, the benefits are 
never so considerable at the beginning. The more or less economy depends 
still upon the dispositions which you take to place your tools in the best position 
to facilitate the manual labor of the waterings, which are the most important 
parts of the manipulation. It should be well understood, that as water is the 
base of the system, it is necessary to have a large quantity of it, as a ton of 
straw is turned into four tons at least of manure. Dispose your heaps near to 
the v/ater — a pond, a brook, a river, or a well ; save particularly rain-water, 
construct reservoirs, make ponds ; and mark well, that, for you, water is manure. 
But that is not all : to receive these waters, to convert them into saturated water, 
or half lye, it is yet necessary to combine economy with the mode of watering. 
Here localities will afford greater or less facilities. But, in fine, it will always 
depend upon your intelligence to make your combinations more or less econom- 
ical. Thus, a perfect disposition is, first of all, to make your preparations at 
the foot of a declining piece of ground, where the water, after having been con- 
verted into lye in a basin above it, can soak the heap by its ordinary fall. It is 
easy to conceive, that if your heap waters itself from a basin above it, the labor 
is considerably reduced. If your farm (or your greatest convenience to the 
necessary quantity of water) is situated in a plain where there is no fall, it will 
be well then to make use of a pump to carry the lye upon your heap. 

Thus, then, in one hand hold the method, which traces the principles, the 
general rules, and with the other take your dimensions, place your tools, 
especially so that the waterings can be practised with economy : for, to resume, 
I can teach you economical processes ; but if you will not aid me, the benefits 
of my system will be less, for I can not sell you economy. If anything in the 
world belongs to intelligence, it is certainly the order which engenders economy. 
You who have commenced without having sufficiently meditated upon my sys- 
tem — upon the mass of water which is necessary — upon the elements which 



46 bommer's method 

must be gathered upon the water to saturate, may, the first time, lead yourself 
into error ; but study, change your preparations if it is necessary, act with 
intelUgence and skill, and the economy will be great and certain. This economy 
will increase year by year. 

If you want to make a large quantity of manure leaven, you should establish 
basins or reservoirs in which the water can be corrupted — the more corrupt it 
is, the more valuable — and afterward preserve the juice or liquid which flows 
from the heap during the operation, and which constitutes the leaven. If these 
two are in a perfect state, you can then in subsequent operations, without fear, 
reduce the lye ingredients to one third of the quantity indicated in the table, 
without prejudice to the quality of the manure. 

Another great principle of economy in a farm, consists in not permitting 
animal matter to volatilize. Thus, the dung of horses, of horned cattle, and 
others, employed in a dry state, have lost one half of their value. These mate- 
rials, on the contrary, thrown day by day, or at least twice a week, into your 
reservoir of saturated water, will not only prevent the loss which would have 
been occasioned by evaporation in the air, but will serve to corrupt the water 
and enrich it. This will give cleanliness to the cattle. It is not to be believed 
that cattle love to roll in their own dirt ; on the contrary, they love cleanliness, 
and cleanliness gives health. To this end, that is, to insure the animal dejec- 
tions in their freshness, in order to enrich the saturated water, the farmer ought 
every morning to make the large cattle get up in their stables and in the barn- 
yard some ten or fifteen minutes before driving them out. During this time 
these cattle will accomplish their functions, and will deposite the product of the 
night's digestion ; whereas, if the animals are driven out immediately after their 
rising, they will deposite their dung far from the farm, in the fields or in the 
woods, and this matter will be, little by little, lost to the farmer. 

(This article is completed by what is said in the following section, Article 5 
No. 5.) 



SECTION SECOND. 

1. Saturated Water. 

2. Place of Operations. 

3. Ingredients of the Lye. 

4. Composition of the Lye. 

5. Manner of making the Manure. 

Article First. — Of Saturated Water. 

Question. I suppose that the more the water is corrupted, old, and charged 

with matter, the more it ought to contribute to the prompt decomposition of 

the vegetables, and to the good quality of the manure. But to be well able to 

fix upon the various qualities of this water, it is necessary that you should make 

\ a classification. 




Answer. You are right. I will divide the saturated water into four classes, 
or distinct qualities. 



1. First quality. 

The first quality of saturated water is that which is composed of rain or snow 
i water, and in which shall have been put much of various kinds of green vege- 
tables, urine, excrements, offal of animals, spoiled fish or provisions, greasy 
dish-water, soapsuds, lye, and in short all similar residues. It will readily be 
comprehended that all these matters, in corrupting the Avater, will also consider- 
ably enrich it at the same time. A water thus composed, and which has been 
permitted to grow old, will of itself more than half constitute a lye, and in 
adding some salts you will have a lye of the first quality. 

2. Second quality. 

The second quality of saturated water is stagnant and corrupted water, such 
as is found in ditches, ponds, and in low places, and in which green vegetables 
have been decomposed. In drawing off this water, you ought to be careful to 
stir the bottom of the ditch or pond, in order to enrich the water with slime or 
mud, which you will find at the bottom, having there formed a deposite. 

3. Third quality. 

The third quality is rain-water, or snow-water. In my experiments I have 
always remarked, that wdth this water, not only the fermentation of the mate- 
rials operate with more ease than with fresh water from wells, springs, or rivers, 
but that the manure which it produces is better than that obtained from these 
last waters. 

In my opinion, the cause of this difference is, that rain and snow water, direct : 
from the clouds, ought to have in it more electricity than that which is amassed 
under ground in traversing various beds of the earth, and consequently I sup- 
pose that it may be a more active agent in fermentation. But that which better 
explains the effect produced by rain or snow water in my manure, is, that these 
waters contain ammoniacal and calcareous elements, all of which, in exciting 
fermentation, communicate at the same time a fertilizing principle to my manure. 
The existence of these salts in rain and snow water, has been detected by 
chemists, and recently confirmed by Dr. Dana, in an admirable work known 
under the title of " Muck Manual." 



1 4. Fourth quality. 

The fourth quality of water is running water, of streams, rivers, or branches, 
I and the last quality is fresh water from wells and springs. 

i In using these waters in the lye, it would be well to augment by one fourth 
I the ingredients in the table, especially at the first operation, because then you 
have not the aid of the leaven of manure, 

I 



48 bommer's method 

Article Second. — Place of Operations. 

1. Grate. 

Question. Is it absolutely necessary to construct a grate ? Can we not put 
up the heap upon a platform without the grate, because everybody has not 
planks at his disposal ? And what is the advantage to be derived from the 
employment of this grate 1 

Answer. The grate in question is only a means to facilitate the operation, 
but it is not indispensable; you may put up the heap upon a platform without 
the grate. Nevertheless, the employment of either of the grates (figs. 3 and 4) 
presents two very valuable advantages. In the first place, it facilitates the 
flowing of the liquid, and then it gives access to the air under the heap, which 
greatly accelerates the fermentation. In fact, with the grate, the fermentation 
commences at the bottom of the heap — it is more prompt : while without the 
grate, it commences at the middle of the heap, and the operation is retarded 
from one to two days. 

If one has not boards at his disposal, he can use any other material, so that 
he makes a grate of some kind, and as he may be more or less able to do it, any 
farmer can construct one for himself, and then he will have no need to disburse 
anything for this object. 

2. Of the employment of old hoards in place of beating the surface. 

Question. You say that the surface of the excavation upon which you wish 
to put this grate or heap, should be beaten or puddled, in order to prevent the 
filtration and loss of the juice which flows from the heap during the operation. 
Do you not think that it would be more advantageous to employ boards to this 
efli'ect 1 

Answer. Without doubt, a bed of boards will perfectly fulfil this end. In 
thus doing, the excavation in question will be more solid and more durable, only 
it will be necessary to fill up the cracks or openings with puddling earth or any 
other mortar, in order that the liquid may not escape in that way. 

I should have mentioned this in the body of the method, if I had not feared 
to occasion some expense, as everybody has not boards at his disposal, while 
the beating of the ground only costs labor. 

The lye reservoir and its object are sufficiently explained in the body of the 
method. 

Article Third. — Ingredients. 

Question. You say that the ingredients are to be found upon the place, and 
that the farmer has not any disbursement to make for this object, while the 
lime, salt, and saltpetre, for which you do not name any substitute, must be 
bought ; barley or other grain, such as is to replace the feculent materials, 
although upon the place, have nevertheless an intrinsic value, which it would 
be easy to realize. Please explain. 



V 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 49 

1. Lime. 
Answer. Concerning the lime, his purchase only becomes necessary when 

; he has no limestone about his farm, or shells to burn, and whenever there is a 
possibility of procuring these materials without expense, it ought to be taken 
advantage of, especially limestone, because, by means of these stones, any one 
may fabricate, all at one time, four of the elements of the lye — namely, lime, 
plaster, soot, and ashes — and that without expending anything. 

In this way, dig a hole in the ground, five feet in diameter and two feet deep ; 
then start at the interior base to build an arch with the limestones, leaving an 
opening on the north side to give a draft to the fire ; then put on it some lime- 
stones, and, if possible, some old plastering ; then fill it up with earth ; apply 
the fire to it from time to time ; feed the fire so that in about thirty hours the 
operation is terminated, and you have, 1st. Fresh lime. — 2d. Plaster which has 
been melted and returned to powder. — 3d. Burnt earth mixed with soot. — 4th 
and last. Ashes. 

This is a further argument that the greater or less economy of my system 
depends upon the intelligence and the genius of the farmer who makes its 
application. 

If it be impossible to procure either limestone or shells, the lime will have to 
be bought, the cost of which, in the quantities required by this method, can not 
be much. 

2. Soot. 

Question. As a substitute for soot you name the product of an ecoluage. 
What do you call an ecobuage ? and how is it that this material contains soot ? 
It seems to me that burnt earth and ashes have no affinity to soot. Is there any 
other substance to substitute for soot ? 

Answer. I call an ecobuage, or clearing-fire, a heap composed of combustible 
materials, such as trunks of trees, roots, branches, briers, heaths, sods of turf of 
all kinds, all materials which are obtained from the clearing of woods, and 
breaking up of pasturage, which is burnt, a common practice upon farms ; and 
as these substances united in a heap are more or less humid and earthy, it fol- 
lows that they will consume but slowly. Now, from this clearing-fire under- 
going a slow and continued combustion for many days, there is the product, 
1st. Of ashes, furnished by the burnt wood. 2d. Burnt earth, furnished by the 
earth which has attached itself to the trunk, the roots, and the turf-sods ; and 
! 3d, there is the soot engendered by the smoke, and which is found mixed with 
the ashes and the burnt earth. 

No doubt I will only find the soot in small portions, but this will suffice for 
our operation, the more so, as this substance, although valuable in the combina- 
tion, is not indispensable in the lye, for this ingredient scarcely contributes any- 
thing to the fermentation of the materials. Then the employment of these 
materials is still advantageous in this sense, that, besides the principle of soot 
which is contained in the ashes and the burnt earth, these two last substances 
possess yet other fertilizing principles for the base of an amendment, which 
have a very good effect in the entire operation. Old plastering from ruins, also, 

4 



i 50 bommer's method 

I contains the principle of soot. I have not mentioned it in the body of the 
Method, because it is rare that this material is in the possession of the farmer, 
while the " clearing" is practised by almost all farmers, and does not occasion 
him any disbursement. 

3. Ashes. 

Question. To replace unslaked wood-ashes, you take 5 or 6 lbs. of potash, 
or of soda, but this substitute it is often necessary to buy. To avoid this 
expense, can we not, in the absence of unslaked wood-ashes, employ the ashes 
of pitcoal, or slaked ashes, or, in short, add them to the first, without 
prejudice to the operation? 

Answer. If you have not unslaked ashes, or you can not get a certain 
quantity fi»r your manure lye, which, moreover, is a case very rare in farms, you 
can then employ coal-ashes, or slaked ashes ; but it will be necessary, in that 
case, to double the quantity, that is, in place of two bushels, take four bushels. 
I If you have at your disposal ashes both unslaked and slaked, and coal- 
ashes, you will reserve the first for your manure lye, and throw the others into 
the basin of saturated uaier ; that is, in case the quantity is too great to be 
added to the lye. 

4. Salt. 

Question. I think that the cost of salt is so small, that it scarcely merits to 
be carried into the account ; the price is so low, and the quantity so small, that it 
is not worth the trouble to make it a question of economy. But I can not con- 
ceive how a Httle salt can have any effect in a heap of manure of four tons. 
Can you tell me ihe reason ? 

Answer. You ouglit to put but very little salt in your lye, because salt, used 
in small quantities, divides the greasy particles, facilitates the course of the sap, 
favors vegetation, and produces a certain heat which hastens fermentation ; 
while a very large quantity will, in many cases, be prejudicial to A'egetation, 
and will arrest fermentation. 

This arguinent is relied upon now by men both of science and of practice ; 

I do also know, by my own experiments, that in putting a little salt in the lye 

my maimre is better. For the rest, you have already remarked, that I seek to 

5 imitate nature. Thus, you will observe, that digestion is better accomplished, 

I although the salt may be scarcely visible, than when our food is taken without 

I suit. The appetite is excited, the salivary glands discharge themselves, by 

I wliich the aliments are better moistened, and better attacked by the juices of 

I the stomach. Now, the same phenomena are going on in plants ; a little salt 

j animates the sap, which circulates better, and does not choke, as when the 

manure is only mucilage. 

5. SaUpctre. 

In regard to s;ilf,petre, every one knows that it is formed in caves, in stables, 
and under liniestojie rocks. Any one can, then, procure his saltpetre for his 
lyes, without iis being necessary to lixiviate the earth, by scraping it down or 



FOR, MAKING MANURE. 51 

around the wall, and then one adds it, in its rough state, to the other ingre- 
dients of the lye. In fine, nothing is more easy than to make at home your 
own artificial nitres, in erecting near the manure-heap, and under low builJino-s, 
to which a little air is given, small walls composed of vegetable earth, ashes, 
and vegetable and animal materials of all sorts. You water these walls from 
time to time, and the nitre forms in them, and is continually reproducing. You 
gather it by scraping the walls. When the weather is wet and damp, and when 
J there is no wind, the nitre makes the faster. 

To make you understand the points of resemblance between the art of making 
nitre (the substance from which saltpetre is extracted), and that of fabricating 
my manure, I will point out to you the artificial process by which nitre is 
produced. 

Nitric acid can only be formed from that part of the air which is termed 
azote, a gas which is also contained in quantities in animal matter. To make 
200 lbs. of saltpetre it is necessary to make use of 300 lbs. of animal matter. \ 
But this nitrogen is not sufficient, air must yet be furnished. Thus, the essen- 
tial conditions to cause the formation of nitre, are : — 

1. Animal matter. 

2. Air. 

3. Moisture. 

4. An alkaline base, such as lime or potash. 

Other things are often added to these elements, as vegetable substances, and 

these fulfil other objects ; they furnish potash, a small matter containing the 

; animal principle, and sometimes nitre, and in dividing the mixtures submitted to 

this process they favor the contact of their parts with the exterior air ; but in 

• putting many vegetables into artificial nitres, you obtain more nitrate of lime. 

(This is one of the truest explanations of my method, since 1 employ vege- 
tables so largely.) There are, then, many points of resemblance between arti- 
ficial nitres and my manure-heaps. 

The product of a good nitrification is four ounces per cubic foot of earth. 
When this manufacture is under cover it is in the best condition for success, and 
the only economical nitrifications are those which are connected with agricul- 
tural experiments. 

There are yet various ways of manufacturing nitre, which it is unnecessary 

to examine here. It is then established, that one of the causes of the slr^ngth 

of my manure is the quantity of saltpetre which is formed in tbe heap, and in 

: my vegetable compost, especially if it is permitted to grow old ; for artificial 

nitrifications represent very nearly the aggregrite of my system. 

The nitrate, or the elements of saltpetre, spread upon the ground, especially 
if the land is calcareous, as well as saltpetre in a state of purity, if they are 
well applied, produce great efl'ects, as they become combined with the lime, 
forming the nitrate of lime, one of the inost active manures which exists ; 
another, and most certain efl^ect of this nitrate, and of saltpetre is, that they 
draw moisture from the air, and give freshness to the plants. 

I have enlarged a little upon this matter, because I wish to demonstrate that 
the art of making nitre closely approaches my method ; that any one can make 



52 bommer's method 

his nitre by only following his manufacture of manure, and that he will owe a 
part of his success in the earth to the quantity of nitre which is formed in his 
heap of manure made after this method. 

6. Plaster. 

Question. As a substitute for plaster you indicate various earthy substances, 
but it seems to me that these materials have but little analogy to plaster, and do 
not possess fertilizing virtues. Then, although these substances, or at least one 
of them, is to be found in the major part of farms, there are, notwithstanding, 
some localities which are entirely without them. In such case, can we not use 
earth in place of them 1 

Answer. In truth, the most part of earthy substances contain but very little 
plaster, and some even none at all, but, nevertheless, their use up to a certain 
point produces the desired result. The essential part for us is, to incorporate 
in a heap of vegetables a solid matter for the basis of the amendment, to the 
effect : — 

1. To render the mass more solid and compact, in order to facilitate the fer- 
mentation of the heap. 

2. To absorb and retain the ammoniacal gas developed by the fermentation. 

3. To prolong the duration of the manure in the earth. 

If you can not procure either one or the other of these earthy substances, or 
if you have not enough of them, you can then replace them with earth. You 
should always use light earth in preference to argillaceous or clayey earth, this 
last being too cold. 

7. Human Excrements. 

Question. How do you explain the power of these excrements ? 

Answer. If you adopt the principle that manures composed of the greatest 
variety of elements are the richest, the explanation is easily found. The 
aliments with which man nourishes himself being of a great variety, and more 
or less rich, as meat, grains, fish, &c., it is natural to understand why this 
manure is the richest when in its primitive state, but not when it is reduced to 
a poudrette, where it has lost, by defective manipulatitm, the greatest part of its 
fertilizing principles. 

8. Dung of Animals. 

Question. As a substitute for feculent materials you prescribe five barrels of 
animal dung. Can you not take less without prejudice to the entire operation ? 

Answer. If you operate with horse-dung, or other hot manures, you can 
reduce this substitute to four barrels, but I, at the same time, indicate the dung 
of oxen, cows, &c., while that of hogs varies according to the nourishment 
which they take, consequently, for your first operations the quantity prescribed 
in the table should be adhered to. But I repeat it, that after your leaven and 
saturated water are well constituted, you can reduce these quantities without 
prejudice to the operation, or to the quality of the manure. 

Question. I know that the dung of oxen, and of cows, is a colder manure 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 53 

than horse-dung, but I can not satisfy myself of the cause of the phenomenon, 
and the more so, as the ox and the cow are nourished from nearly the same 
food as the horse. Can you tell me the reason ? 

Answer. It appears to me that the cause is this. Ruminant animals chew 
their food a second time, and longer than the horse, whence it follows that 
the fermentation of their aliments in the stomach, and in the intestines, is better 
accomplished than with the horse race. Now, the more complete the fermenta- 
tion of a vegetable, the less heat remains to be developed. 

This is why horse-dung, of which the materials are less fermented, less \ 
divided, and less decomposed, gives out more warmth to the nourishment of 
plants than the dung of cows, the particles of which are closer together and 
more united. Open the two manures, and at a single glance it will be observed 
that that of the cow can be but little more fermented, and that the other, less 
broken, produces more heat. You can see, then, why it is remarked that cow 
manure is better than others upon light and sandy soils, and that horse-dung is 
preferable to cow-dung for strong, cold, and clayey lands. 

Question. I do not know if your remark is very just upon the subject of 
ruminant animals, because the sheep and the goat ruminate, and their manure 
is still hotter than that of the horse. 

Answer. If straw and hay were the principal nourishment of sheep and 
goats, as they are of the cow, their dung might perhaps not be worth more than 
that of the cow ; but observe that the bovine cattle feed on grain, the croppings 
of forage, and most active odoriferous plants, whence its dung ought to be 
very active. Also observe, that this manure is much richer in the fine season 
than in winter, and upon the mountains than in the plain. 

Thus, then, it is not sufficient to class the value of manures after the kinds 
of animals which produce them, but they should be considered with reference 
to the richness of the aliments of which they are the residues, and the seasons 
in which these manures are produced. 

9. Grain. 

Concerning grain as a substitute for human excrements, I have not recom- 
mended the use of grain, but in the rare case of the absence of feculent matter. 
For example : when one first purchases a farm, or a new farmer enters into 
new grounds, where there is neither cattle nor manure to be had, he may still 
compose a good manure-heap by means of fermented grain, which will produce 
a greater effect than he may have an idea of, because the fermented liquor 
which results from it is a moving principle, an active lye to attack and decom- 
pose the woody substances, by merely adding a new strength to the base of 
albumen and starch ; but I do not mean to say by that, that manure produced 
from this operation will be as perfect as if you had used animal matter. 

10. Diastasfi, or fermentous matter contained in grain. 

It is now acknowledged by chemists that diastase, a substance recently dis- 
covered by chemical analysis, found especially in barley, is a powerful vehicle 
to fermentation. This substance is found in the embryo of the barley-grain ; it 



54 bommer's method 

acts, during the first stages of vegetation, upon the germ of the grain ; it is 
that wliich engenders the sugar fermentation, and develops the plant, and the 
power of diastase is such that two thousandths will suffice to cause this fer- 
mentation. 

Then diastase not only exists in barley and in other grains, but in nearly 
all other vegetables, although in very small quantities, and as it is only necessary 
for one thousandth to act energetically, it follows, that for the little that is found 
in a gathered mass of vegetables, pressed and watered, it will act with energy 
upon the germ which is found in them. There is, by this means, conversion of 
the germ in sugar; that is to say, the first fermentation; afterthe vinous fermen- 
tation is produced, then the acid : then at last the putrid, which is the stage of 
destruction of the ligneous bodies ; that is, that of which we are in search. 

The learned chemist, Dumas, maintains that sugar exists in all vegetable 
substances ; that always the sugar fermentation is the first ; and that, conse- 
quently, my fermentation, like all others, commences by the action of the dias- 
tase upon all that is fecula, and that the other fermentations are only such as 
follow in the order above named. 

This explanation refers not only to the addition of barley or other grain, but 
it throws light upon the first and true cause of the fermentation of our manure. 
You will now perceive why it is that I have prescribed the thorough intermix- 
tures of the materials in heaping them, and I add, that if one has green vege- 
tables at his disposal, he ought to intermix them with the other materials. 
Grain, and especially barley, possesses another property: in the state prescribed, 
that is, after having been steeped for the time mentioned in the lye or in the 
diluted urine, the albuminous particles detach from the grain, and contribute to 
anoint vegetables with a greasy and animal substance. Thus, those who wish 
to make a very active manure, as gardeners generally desire to have, will only 
have to add to the quantity of feculent matter indicated in the table, the water in 
which barley or other grain has been steeped. It is to this mixture that I 
attribute the astonishing fermentation that I obtained in one of my experiments, 
in which it exceeded 250 degrees of Fahrenheit. 

11. Retrenchment of the Soot, Salt, and Saltpetre. 

Question. Is it absolutely indispensable to use all the ingredients to obtain 
the high degree of fermentation necessary to reduce vegetables into manure in 
a few days ? Can we not leave some of them out without sensibly injuring the 
whole operation 1 

Answer. The materials absolutely necessary to produce the wished-for 
fermentation, are : — 

1. Lime. 

2. Ashes. 

3. Animal matter. 

4. Then a mineral substance, as the basis of the amendment, in order to 
obtain the necessary slime. 

By means of these four ingredients, and in acting as I have prescribed in the 
foregoing, one can still obtain a good result. At the same time, it should be 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 55 

i home in mine], that in adding the other matters, the manure which they produce 
i.s better, because, not only have you added thereto various elements, very 
precious to ihe feriility of the ground, but, by their mixture with other ingre- ' 
dieuis, you have facilitated the production of nitrate of lime, and of caustic 
potash. 

Tims, ihen, although the soot and saltpetre are not absolutely necessary to 
( cause the success of the operation, you should, nevertheless, always employ 

these substances when you can procure them with little expense. 
i Those who have marl at their disposal ought to use it preferably to the other 
i suhsiitutes t>r plaster, or even to plaster itself. In using marl, you can even 
diminish, by one half, the quantity of lime, as marl is very rich in alkalies. So, 
j also, if you use human excrements, urine, or much liquor from stable manure, 
1 you can omit saltpetre, as these materials contain its principle. You should 
I also understand, that if you use saline residues, sea-water, or sea-mud, or if you 
) are acting upon vegetables containing much salt, as sea-ores, &c., you can dis- 
( pense with the use of salt in the lye. 

12. Employmmt nf ground hunps, horn shavings, sawdust, ground charcoal, 

\ blood, and othf.r residues of butcheries, and those of salting establishments. 

I QuKSTiOiV. kW the elements of your lye are known as proper to fertilize the 

ground and nourish the plants. Now, there are others which have also that 

value, and which you take the pains to mention, as, for example, ground bones, 

s horn-shavings, sawdusi, pulverized charcoal, blood, and other ofTal of butcheries, 

j the residues of soap and candle manufactories, those of salteries, &c. Should 

these materials not be hurtful to the operation, how should we act to draw from 

them the greatest profit ? 

Answer For my combination, and to attain my end, it is important, first of 
all, to find the materials which are at the disposal of each farmer, or at least 
those which they can procure with facility, and at the least expense, in order 
that the adopiion of my system can become general. 

Doubtless there are some farmers who have at their disposal, or can procure, 
at a trifling expense, not only all the materials mentioned above, but yet more, 
any other substance known in science, or in practice, as possessing fertilizing 
qualities, which they ought to employ, because one being rich in carbonic acid, 
others in salts, others again in azote, it is certain that their mixture with other 
ingredients will greatly enrich the mass. 

As to the manner of using these various materials with the greatest advantage 
possible, you should mix the organized bodies with the vegetables, and pass the 
whole of them through the lye ; and as to the inorganic matters, or such as are 
in a liquid state, they should be thrown into the basin of saturated water in 
cases where the liquid is produced, in a season when manure is not wanted to 
be made. If, on the contrary, it is at the time of making manures, they should 
be thrown into the lye reservoir, always observing a certain proportion. 

In proceeding thus, these materials will dispose themselves to solubility, or 
dissolve, and, in short, will be found divided in an equal manner in all the mass 
of the manure or compost heap. 



56 bommer's method 

Article Fourth. — Composition of the Lye. 

1. Reduction and augmentation of the ingredients. 

Question. To reduce, or to make predominate, such and such elements in 
our lye, what is the least, and what is the greatest quantity of each ingredient 
which we can use in the composition of our lye ? 

Answer. To appropriate the lye to the soil and the plant, as is said in arti- 
] cles 3 and 4 of the first section, you can augment or increase each of the ingre- 
\ dients stated in the table, in the following proportions, without endangering the 
success of the operation, namely : — 

1st. Lime — 2 bushels may be reduced to 1 bushel, or augmented to 8 bushels. 

2d. Soot— 2 bushels do do 5 do. 

3d. Ashes — 2 bushels , do 1 do 8 do. 

4th. Salt — 4 pounds do do 16 pounds. 

5th. Saltpetre — 2 pounds do do 100 do. 

6th. Plaster — 5 bushels do 2 do. 15 bushels. 

7th. Excrement — 3 barrels, .do 2 do 12 barrels. 

8th. Leaven — 1 barrel do do 10 do. 

It is to be understood that these proportions are established for one ton of dry 
materials, or two tons of green vegetables, and that if you use more of these 
materials, you ought to augment the quantities progressively, and in a certain 
proportion. 

You may diminish or increase the materials named as substitutes, in the same 
proportions. 

1 ought to recommend, not to depart widely from the quantity of lime fixed 
above, and only to augment the quantity first named in the table in cases fore- 
shadowed in the third article of the preceding section, because lime being cor- 
rosive, it follows that if jou put a quantity much too strong, it will eat up , 
the unctuous particles of the manure. Neither ought you to go much beyond 
the quantity of soot fixed above, for in such cases this ingredient will stop the 
fermentation. 

2. Variation of the quantity of the ingredients according to the size of the heap. 
Question. I suppose that we ought to increase or diminish the quantity of 

; the ingredients in proportion to the quantity of our materials. You say, " in a 
certain proportion," but this annunciation appears to me rather vague. Can you 
not be more precise in these proportions, in giving a calculation that will 

( guide me 1 

Answer. It must be admitted as a rule, that the quantity of the ingredients 
to employ, depends upon the state in which you find the saturated water. Now, 
if this water is of the first quality, as is spoken of in the first article of this 
section, and you have a good leaven at your disposal, you will be in the first 
condition, and you can reduce by one fourth your other ingredients in acting 
upon the quantity of materials announced, namely, one ton of dry vegetables, or 
two tons of green. 

If you use water of the second or third quality, if you act without leaven, and 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 57 

if you only have the quantity of materials above announced, you will be in a 
second condition ; you must then use these ingredients in the proportions stated 
in the table. 

If you have water of the fourth quality, and no leaven, and you only operate 
upon a small quantity of materials, you will be in the third and last condition, 
and it will then be necessary to augment by one fourth the quantity of the 
ingredients. 

If you act upon many tons of materials, and you are in the first condition 

relative to saturated water and leaven, you can reduce by one third your lye 

ingredients. If you are in the second condition, you can reduce them by one 

I fourth ; if you are in the third condition, you ought to maintain the quantities 

laid down in the table. 

If you employ a larger quantity of materials, say 15 to 30 tons, and are in 
the first condition as to saturated water and leaven, you can reduce your inore- 
dients by one half. If you are in the second condition, you can reduce them 
one third. If you are in the third condition, you ought to reduce them by one 
fourth. 

If you employ more than 30 tons of materials at a time, you can in the first 
condition reduce the ingredients five eighths ; in the second condition by one 
half; in the third condition by only one third. In acting thus, you will still 
have a satisfactory result, while it is natural that the more materials you put in 
the lye, the better will you make your manure. 

3. Thr: least and the greatest quantity of materials that can be employed in our 
operation. 

Question. What is the least, and what is the greatest, quantity of materials 
that can be employed at a time, without endangering the operation ? 

Answer. For vegetable manure you ought not to take less than 1,000 lbs. of 
vegetables, dry or green, and for vegetable compost not less than 2,000 lbs. of 
materials. These quantities are strictly necessary to obtain the degree of heat 
necessary for the prompt decomposition of the materials. 

As to the largest quantity of materials which can be employed at a time, it is 
unlimited, for the larger the heap the better. In fact, it is much more easy to 
operate upon a large than upon a small quantity. In a large heap the fermen- 
tation operates more freely, and is developed with greater facility ; it is more 
active, more powerful, than in a small heap, and consequently the success of 
the operation is much more easy to realize. 

4. Virtue of the Lye. — What it is. 

Question. A lye well composed, has it the same virtue, and does it fulfil the 
same end, as the urine of cattle ? 

Answer. The lye is in reality a fictitious or artificial urine, by means of 
which we substitute with advantage the urine of cattle. In fact, the principal 
elements which constitute the urine of beasts, enters in the composition of this 
lye, and by joining to it the fermented juices which I have designated under 
the name of "leaven," which replace, or form a substitute for the action which 



the animal organization exercises upon urine, and which engenders ammoniacal 
salts, you not only obtain a liquid richer than urine (since you can vary its 
elements, the mordant, and the action), but still more advantageous, since you 
can at vi'ill make the whole quantity of juices which you may want to fabricate 
your manures for sowing time. 

The solution of the problem, " to replace the urine of cattle by an analogous 
liquid, possessing the same virtues as urine, and which can be made at will, in 
as large quantities as is wanted," is one of the most important points of this 
method. 

Article Fifth. — Manner of making the manure. 

1. Mode of making the Manure prepared in this manner as short and fine as 
you please. 

Question. You say, Article 8, in the body of your work, that in order to 
crush the ligneous vegetables, they should be spread evenly on the ground, 
and the larger cattle be made to walk over them, or a roller be used, so as to 
prepare them to become more thoroughly impregnated with the lye. All this I 
comprehend very well ; but the major part of these ligneous vegetables, such as 
stalks, stems, &c., though they may be crushed, will still retain their former 
length ; and though imbedded into the general mass of the heap, they will 
probably not become sufficiently approximated and united to render the mass 
compact, and of uniform density, so as induce and facilitate fermentation ; in 
short, though these materials may become softened through the effect of high 
fermentation, and, as it were, baked, and partly relaxed and dissolved, yet they 
will not become sufficiently separated to be freely ploughed in and incorporated 
with the soil, especially if having undergone only a iew days' fermentation, so 
as to render the manure adapted to the soil, and the kind of vegetable for which 
it is intended. This being the case, how can this inconvenient defect be obvi- 
ated by some simple and easy management in the performance of the work ? 

Answer. Your observation is correct and judicious. The difficulty certainly 
can be remedied, and in this way : — 

As regards the long pieces of stalks, roots, &c., let them be put in the middle 
of the heap, taking care to distribute them equally as the heap progresses in its 
construction, x^rrange the heap in such a manner that these ligneous bodies 
are deposited in the middle of the heap, intermixed and' surrounded with the 
rest of the materials, such as straw, green vegetables, &c., so that the ligneous 
particles, which are adverse to approach and amalgamate, may be brought into 
close contact with each other, pressed together, and thus fermentation induced. 
The fact is, that these ligneous bodies, though placed in the condition described, 
will not for some days become completely dissevered ; a long stalk or twig will 
still retain its primitive length ; but they will, as you say, have become softened, 
trenchable, and baked through. When reduced to this state, it is very easy to 
cut them, and by that means make the manure as fine as you please. The cut- 
ting process may be performed as follows : — 

When the manure is to be brought out on the soil or field, a man, armed with 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 59 

a cuttitig instrument, mounts the heap, and cuts into the mass lengthwise and 
crosswise, over the whole surface of the heap, to the depth of ten or twelve 
inches, according to the capacity of the instrument. These incisions should be 
made from three to twelve inches apart, according to the degree of fineness 
desired. This operation being done, the wagons or carts are loaded with the 
manure thus cut up ; and so soon as one perforated layer is carried off, the 
same process is repeated on anotlier layer, then on a third, and so on, until the 
whole heap is cut up. A coininon hatchet may be employed in this operation, 
such as every farmer has on his premises, or, if wishing to perform the work 
with greater despatch, a hatchet of larger dimensions may be used, or a cutting 
instrument in the shape of the knives which are generally used in cider- s 
mills. \ 

It will be found, on experiment, that this labor is both easy and rapid in its { 
execution, because the heap, being soft and yielding, yet compact, the cutting is ! 
\ effected promptly and without much resistance ; indeed, one single man can in | 
i half an hour, cut a layer of twenty inches depth, which, for every layer from a J 
I large heap, yields at least twenty-five loads of manure. | 

2. NtcRssity of tJie mixture nf the haves of trees with other vegetables. \ 

I Question. In the body of the method, Article 8, you speak of the mixture | 

of the leaves of trees with other vegetables. To what end do you make this \ 

particular recommendation ? | 

Answer. I have expressly recommended this mixture for the reasons fol- 
lowing : — • 

First, leaves of trees, and especially dry leaves, contain very little fecula and 
sugar; consequently their fermeritous power is very feeble in comparison with 
other vegetables ; it is necessary then to add to them materials which enclose 
more ferment than them, in order to aid their fermentation and reduction. 

And then, in operating by irrigation, as it is spoken of in the second process, 
this intermixture is still more indispensable, inasmuch as the leaves take the 
lye difficultly, atid if you put in a layer without mixture with other vegetables, 
they form into balls, and become so glued together that the lye poured upon 
them touches only the surface of the ball or knot, flows on one side, and the 
watering does not attain its end, because the interior of the balls remain dry, 
the lye not having penetrated ; whence the fermentation will operate difficultly, 
and their decomposition will become slow and imperfect. Whereas, mixed 
with other vegetables, the fermentation is more powerful, the leaves being 
parted through all the heap, the lye can reach them — they are moistened and 
decompose. 

If you operate upon leaves of trees, or other very short defective materials, 
which consequently heap up difliculily, it would be well then to construct of 
longer materials a bank upon the sides of the grate, all around, about a foot high, 
and from a foot to eighteen inches thick ; by these means you will have obtained 
a cavity of a foot in depth. It is in this last that you should ihrow^ leaves or 
other very short materials, taking care to mix them well as they are thrown into 
the cavity. When the cavity is full, and the materials which have been thrown 



in are level with the bank, you finish this layer in the manner already indicated 
in the body of the method. 

Then form a second layer in the same manner as the first, and thus continue 
until all the materials are heaped ; then cover the heap with straw, hay, or, in 
fine, the vegetables which always remain around the heap after the operation. 

3. Covering the Heap. 

Question. You often repeat that we ought to cover the heap with straw or 
hay. It appears to me, that provided we cover the heap, it is of little impor- 
tance what with, the end is accomplished. I even think that if it was covered 
with planks or with earth it would only be the better for it, because in this man- 
ner the gases developed by the fermentation could not escape from the top of 
the heap : then the boards still serve for putting stones upon them, in order still 
more to press the materials in case we should be acting upon vegetables which 
pack difficultly, and which have not been sufficiently mixed with earthy sub- 
stances to render the heap compact and solid, so as to facilitate fermentation. 

Answer. In truth, I have intentionally made these repetitions, and for this 
reason. In our operation we ought to use all the means in our power to cause 
the degree of heat necessary for the reduction of the materials. Now, if we 
cover the heap with a good layer of earth, or with boards lying close together, 
we smother the fermentation instead of developing it, because the necessary 
evaporation can only be effected from the top of the heap, whereas, when it is 
covered with a solid and compact body, it is interrupted in its course, which 
smothers, or at least which greatly enfeebles the fermentation. Then the air, 
an agent of our fermentation as powerful as the lye itself, not being able to 
penetrate the surface of the heap, we lose not only its action, but also its azote ; 
I whereas, in covering the heap, as is prescribed, the evaporation can be realized, 
it gives access to the air, and, in a word, these obstacles disappear. 

If you wish to cover the heap with boards, for the purpose mentioned in your 
question, you should then not place them too close, and dispose them in such a 
manner as to leave intervals of five or six inches between each, in order that 
the evaporation may pass through these spaces. 

As to the loss of gases by evaporation, this loss is scarcely sensible, because 
j nearly the whole of them are " fixed" in the materials, and particularly in 
earthy matters, which are found mixed with the vegetables; As to the rest, we 
should not wish what is impossible. We can not go against laws traced by 
Nature herself: we retain what it is possible to retain, and that without preju- 
dice to the entire operation. This end being attained, we seek there to stop. 

Thus, you see how important it is to cover the heap in the manner prescribed, 
and how this point, so small in its appearance, becomes great in its conse- 
quences. I also seize upon this occasion to recommend to my patrons to con- 
form to the prescriptions of the method, or at least not to depart too far from the 
fundamental rules which are here traced ; for I repeat, that all which is here 
leported is the result of numerous experiments, and that the various processes 
have only been adopted after having observed, among many others, that they 
were the best and most proper to insure the success of our operation. 




FOR MAKING MANURE. 61 

4. Destruction of the heap, advantage which results from it. 
Question. In the same article 8, you counsel us to demolish the heap, and 
reconstruct it immediately after. What advantages result from this operation ? 
Answer. In operating thus, you assure yourselves : — 

1. The complete decomposition of the materials which were upon the side 
of the heap, which never decompose well there, not being enough pressed, and 
wanting moisture ; also those at the bottom of the heap, which, in case of oper- 
ating without the grate, are not entirely reduced, for the reason that they are 
chilled by the ground upon which they rest. It is true that this portion is very 
small, but we are trying to render the whole mass equally good. 

2. By the change of the place of the materials made by the new heaping, 
the oxygen is renewed, and the lye reaches all parts of the vegetables which 
had theretofore escaped ; all this causes a prompt and powerful fermentation, 
which completes the operation. 

This labor is particularly recommended to persons who have not yet had 
practice and skill in the operation ; it is a certain means of insuring the success 
; of the operation. 

5. Labor, 

Question. But this demolition increases the labor, which is already consid- 
erable, and for this reason, I fear, many farmers will not execute it, for it is true 
that there are some active farmers who do not much regard it, but it is not less 
true that there are some who do, and to whom this branch will occasion some 
expense for laborers. In fact, should we not reduce the labor in general ? 

Answer. Without doubt it can be reduced. I can only repeat to you, that it 
all depends upon the perfect or defective manner in which you have organized 
all your preparations. In answer to your whole question, I will say, that in 
nearly all well-conducted farms, the hands attached to them are ordinarily suffi- 
ciently numerous to give no cause for the employment of strangers on this occa- 
sion. The farmer, in pursuing his usual discretion in the proper distribution of 
? the labors of his farm, so as to employ his force with the greatest advantage, 
I will certainly attain this end without any increase of hands. And should he 
even, in the fabrication of his manures, employ two or three extra hands, what 
harm can come of it ? Will not their labor be doubly repaid to him in the 
increased products of his farm ? In fact, it is altogether impossible for the 
farmer to make any sacrifice in fabricating masses of manure out of elements 
which cost him nothing. As to the rest, he will be a lucky man who accom- 
plishes all his desires without previous labor. I am here endeavoring to insure 
to him the success of his agricultural operations, that is to say, to insure him 
nourishment for the year, to lay the groundwork of his fortune. Now, this is 
well worth the pains of serious application to it, and to use the means which are 
in the power of every one to cause this result. 



U. 




SECTION THIRD. 

1. Composts. 

2. Means to augment the Manure of a Farm. 

3. Waterings. 

4. Surmnary of the 'principal Advantages of this Method. 

Article First. — Vegetable and Mineral Composts. 

L Mixture of vegetables with turfy materials. 

Question. In tlie seciion upon composts, article 1, you say, that upon two 
tons of hay or greeti vegetables, or upon one ton of dry vegetables, we ought to 
put a ton and a half of turfy materials. Now, can we not act upon these last 

I materials without mixing them with vegetables ? or, in case that the mixture is 
necessary, can we not take less vegetables and more turfy materials ? And 
why ought we to permit this last matter to dry ? 

Answer. It is here desired to produce a fermentation sufficiently high to 
decompose all these materials in a short space of time. Now, as the fermenta- 
tive power exists in the vegetables, and as this power is more or less strong, 
according as the vegetable is rich in diastase, in fecula, and in sugar, it follows, 
that if we use turfy materials without mixing them vvith vegetables, our fermen- 
tation will never attain a degree of heat sufficient for prompt decomposition, 
because the turf being principally composed of roots and A'egetables, of which 
one part is already in putrefaction, does not, of itself, present a sufficient ferment 
for the action of our lye. It is necessary, then, to bring vegetables to their 
support. 

If your turfy materials are a little earthy, and contain much undecomposed 
vegetable substance, you can double the quantity if you mix with dry vegeta- 
bles, or triple it if you mix with green. 

You ought to permit these substances to get almost dry, because in this state 
they absorb a larger quantity of the lye. 

In regard to the process described in article 2, you sliould understand that 
here we can only obtain a moderate fermentation, seeing that we are using 
manures which are already fermented, and which, consequently, can no longer 
develop a great heat. 

I Here, again, you can double or triple the quantity of your turfy materials, if 

j ihey are of the kind mentioned above. 

J A.S to the mineral composts, there can be no question of fermentation, since 

I we act only upon earthy materials. 

2. The most favorable season for the preparation of composts. 
Question. What is the most favorable time for the manufacture of composts ? 
Answer. In regard to the vegetable composts of article 1, you ought to pre- 
pare them in the season of the greatest abundance of green vegetables, and as 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 63 

! to those of article 2, they can be fabricated either in the spring, summer, or 
i autumn, but you ought always to prefer manures made out of green vegetables 
I to those made out of dry. They possess many advantages. 

The first is richer in substances virhich have a humid basis, and the mass is 
j tenderer, more decomposed, more compact, more unctuous, whence it follows 
! that the compost which it produces is superior to that which is obtained from 
; the second. 

1 As to the mineral compost, it can be made at all seasons, at spare times. 
; Nevertheless, summer is more favorable than winter, as in winter the freezing' 
j weather may not oidy interrupt the operation, but it may also alter the quality of 

composts, for the mass being fresh and humid is apt to freeze, which it is very 
\ important should be prevented. 

If you wish to prepare this compost in winter, it will be well to put it in a 

close place, in order to shelter it from the severity of the weather. 

3. Is it advanlageuris to use compost in a fresh state. 

Question. May we use these composts when fresh, that is, immediately after 
\ their dessication, or should we sufTer them to become old ? 

\ Answer. You can spread these composts upon your grounds or meadows, 
j immediately after their dessication, yet, in suffering it to become old, the vege- 
table compost increases in quality, while the remaining heaped up, it very 
nearly represents an artificial nitrous earth, or the rough matter of saltpetre, and 
as the nitre is a powerful agent in vegetation, it follows that the older a compost 
is, the richer will it become in fertilizing substances. 

And as to the fermentation, it is not to be feared. As it contains a large : 
quantity of earthy materials, the fermentation of the heap is almost nothing. 

4. Preservation of composts. 

Question. How should we preserve our composts ? 

Answer. In regard to vegetable compost, its preservation is easy. You 
form, as it is made, heaps two, three, four, and five feet of height, and of any 
length or breadth. It will be well to place these heaps under a shed, as they 
should be sheltered ; yet if this disposition of them requires the construction of 
sheds, and consequently some expense, you can, to avoid expense, place them I 
in the open air, taking care to cover them with old boards, straw, or hay, in 
order to preserve them from the rains. 

Concerning the mineral compost or earth manure, I repeat, that as soon as 
the mass is well stirred and kneaded, it should be divided into loaves of from 60 
to 100 lbs. ; these loaves should be put into a heap in such a maimer that the air 
can pass through it so as to facilitate their drying, and that the heaps should be | 
made under a shed. 

In this way these composts may be preserved for many years without injury 
to their quality. They should be pulverized just before using them. 

5. Regulations to observe in the fahrication of composts. 

Question. What regulations should be made in the fabrication of composts ? 



BOMMER S METHOD 



Answer. In the composition of vegetable and mineral composts you ought to 
observe for rules : — 

1st. That the more intimately the materials are mixed, the more the mass is 
stirred and kneaded, and the older the compost grows, the more does it acquire 
fertilizing properties. 

2d. That it is unnecessary to observe the quantities and proportions of the 
various ingredients prescribed in the method ; because it is to be understood that 
the force and value of the composts will be in proportion to the fertilizing mate- 
rials which you use, and that you can double, triple, or quadruple the doses, 
according as you wish to have your composts more or less strong, and according 
to the various soils and plants to which they are to be applied. To this last 
end, you ought to make predominate in the lye those particular ingredients 
which are especially necessary for the amendment of such and such soils, or to 
the growth of such and such plants, as is indicated in the preceding section — 
art. 2, sec. 4, 7, 10, and 11. 

6. European composts, or moulds, compared to mine. 

Question. In England and France they also make composts by means of 
fermentation. Are yours superior? And if they are, will you tell me the 
reason ? 

Answer. The English, although extremely advanced in the culture of the 
earth, are precisely those who have made the least approaches to my liquid 
operation. They operate in the dry way. This is their process : They form 
layers of ligneous vegetables, of lime, and of earth. This operation is not only 
very long and very costly in lime, but the compost or manure which is obtained 
after a year's delay and more, is often not of a good quality, for the reason that 
the quick lime, placed immediately in contact with the vegetables, sometimes 
destroys a large part of the humus which the ligneous bodies would have fur- 
nished by their decomposition ; and if there should be too little lime, notwith- 
standing the lapse of a considerable time, the decomposition would not be 
sufficiently advanced. The proper medium in this operation is very difficult to 
observe ; whereas, by the liquid way, I compose a mould superior to that of the 
English, in the space of a few hours, instead of a year. 

The Normans also make moulds for the culture of flaic. With them, expe- 
rience has for a long time shown, that rich manure was not favorable to the 
grain of flax, which, by its diminutiveness, being in too close contact with the 
clod of manure, is often observed to fire before it has attained the first degree of 
development. From whence they were driven to the composition of a mould in 
which the grain of flax could germinate, and into which its roots could easily 
penetrate, and take, little by little, its necessary nourishment, without being 
engorged at once with too strong juices, and they fell upon the following means : 
They take a bed of stable manure, and a bed of earth, and occasionally stir 
them up, and in about a year they use this mould for the culture of flax, and also 
for other uses, but more particularly for flax. 

This manure, incorporated dry with the earth, stirred many times in a year, 
a large part of it is dissipated by a slow fermentation, by the air, rains, and the 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 65 

vegetation of enormous thistles and other parasitical plants, which pump all the 
juices, has consequently but feeble action ; and, moreover, the mould is incom- 
plete, although it has taken much labor, and a year's time, to produce it ; 
whereas my liquid way aims at a different object, that of disseminating at once 
all the salts and substances, rich in humus, in the earthy materials, of which 
each grain, by means of its kneading, strongly retains these fertiUzing princi- 
ples, and administers them, little by little, to the plants, and without engorge- 
ment, either for the reason that they are retained with more tenacity in a 
kneaded earth, or because my lye is composed of numerous elements which 
decompose one after the other, according to the diversity of their natures. It 
is known that a slow and prolonged fermentation is destructive to matter, and 
that a rapid and energetic fermentation produces an augmentation in the bulk, 
rather than a loss. It is thus that beans, cooked in boiling water, lose none of 
their substance, they are only softened, and disposed to solubility, by means of 
the digestive fermentation ; whereas, these same vegetable bodies, subjected to 
a slow and dry fermentation, would be converted into powder, like chestnuts . 
neglected in the hot ashes. 

Well, it is this last result which is realized, not only in the Norman moulds, 
but also in all others which are fabricated dry after a long fermentation ; 
whereas, if I decompose in a few days green vegetables, by means of my lye, 
and my rapid fermentation, and if I knead the whole with an earthy material, 
I avoid any loss of substance, and I compose a vegetable mould, which I can 
use with success at any time, whether in one year or many years, without its 
fertilizing powers being weakened, while the other composts are gradually 
destroyed, in consequence of their faulty preparation, and for want of an inti- 
mate amalgamation by the humid process. 

6. Poudrette compared to my Composts. 

Question. There is yet another compost known under the name of poudrette ; 
I where is it fabricated, and how is it made ? One finds its use advantageous, 
and another is of a contrary opinion — what do you think of it ? Do you think 
yours is superior ? 

Answer. Poudrette is a compost of French origin. It is made in many of 
the large cities of France, but it has only within a few years been made in 
America. Poudrette is fabricated of feculent material, that is, of human 
excrements, which they sometimes mix with earthy substances or plaster, for 
the purpose, I suppose, of absorbing the ammonia of the feculent material. The 
effect in the earth of poudrette is more or less active, and its use more or less 
advantageous, according to the species of ground and plants to which it is 
administered. This explains the diverse opinions which are entertained by 
farmers who have used it. In general, poudrette, as an active manure, is of 
short duration in the ground. Then, this manure being fabricated of human 
excrements, and the substance which they add to it being in too small quantities 
to prevent the too great solubility of the matter, and for the long retention of its 
fertilizing principle, in order to feed, little by little, the plant in its various stages 
of vegetation, it follows that, by freeing itself of too much of the juices at a time, 



it engorges tlie roots of the plants and injures the development of the vegetable, 
especially in sandy, light, and warm soils. Again, the feculent material, rich 
in its primitive state in fertilizing substances, undergoes, in its reduction to pou- 
drette by the manipulation, the washing, the evaporation occasioned by its long 
exposure to the air, a loss which we may confidently estimate at one half. In 
fine, its use is expensive. Now, in my composts I use feculent materials in 
their fresh state, which I there fix, and disseminate them largely among earthy 
materials, each grain of which, having been kneaded with it, retains in force its 
fertilizing principles, to administer them little by little to the plants and without 
engorgement, either by reason of its being more divided and retained with more 
tenacity in a kneaded earth, or because I incorporate them with amendments 
which decompose one after the other, according to the diversity of their natures ; 
and, in short, the farmer fabricates my composts himself, and with elements 
which cost him nothing. Notwithstanding, judge yourself which of the com- 
posts is the best and most advantageous to agriculture, the English, French, 
poudrette, or mine. 



Article Second. — Means to augment considerably the Manures of a Farm. 

1. Dried earth, in place of straw, as litter for beasts. 

Question. There are some farmers who put dried earth in their stables, and 
particularly in their barn-yards, in place of straw, for litter for their cattle. 
Does this system appear to you advantageous ? 

Answer. This system is assuredly advantageous ; and now it acquires so 
much the more importance, and becomes so much the more recommendable, as 
the present method gives you the facility to reduce the straw which you had 
designed for litter into manure, without the aid of cattle. So, amass in fair 
weather, near your barn-yard and stables, piles of dry earth, which in general 
should be of a different nature from that of the field which you wish to manure, 
if it is possible, because then you carry an amendment to the soil, which straw 
is not. Put this earth in your barn-yard and stables, and the result will be, that 
the dung and the urine will be absorbed by the earth, which immediately puri- 
fies them, whereas the straw, in decomposing, adds one putrefaction to another ; 
that the earth will absorb and retain the gases : consequently you will not have 
putrid emanations nor loss of gas — there will be salubrity for both man and 
beast. This earth, impregnated with dung and urine, kneaded under the feet 
of the cattle, will lose nothing which has been given to it ; put it into a heap 
guarded from waters, or under sheds, and they will always preserve their fecun- 
dating properties entire. 

This system is the most seriously advantageous and economical to fabricate 
masses of manure for nearly the whole year ; that is, to preserve without fail 
the animal dejections, and administering them to plants without any loss, in 
augmenting the mass by the even division of the matter, of which each grain 
of earth retains a part, and which it only abandons in proportion to the wants 
of the plant, and this can be done without causing any fear that the cattle may 
be hurt or incommoded by the earth which is dry, light, and sweet j you then 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 67 

convert your straw and other vegetables into manure at seeding time, either in 
March or October. 

These are the two months of the year in which you can put straw under 
your cattle, if you desire it, because at this time the straw can be fermented 
regularly by the aid of this method. Thus, in these two months, put straw 
under your cattle — or earth, it matters little which at this time, as all the straw 
will be converted into manure by waterings with the lye. Thus all your 
manures are warm and equally matured as the dung of a horse, of which all its 
parts are submitted to the same fermentation as in the intestines, by the aid of 
the same juices. 

If you have twenty-five tons of straw on the first of October, you will have 
by the fifteenth of October, one hundred tons of manure, worth double one hun- 
dred tons of stable or barn-yard manure, because the first is rich in juice, equal 
in its parts, and all warm ; whereas the second is an inactive body, washed by 
the rains of many months, dried out by the sun, cold, spongy, and scarcely 
colored by the juices, which are gone. 

Do you know what will be the result of this manner of operating ? Not only 
you will have lost nothing in retaining captive all the animal manure in the 
earth, but you will have double and triple the quantity of manure, because pro- 
longed fermentation destroys even more than one half, and your manure is new, 
powerful, active, and appropriated to your soil and to the plants which you 
cultivate according to all the phases of their vegetation, and it will act beyond 
your hopes. It is time you should cease to calculate manure by its volume and 
its weight, and to demand how many cart-loads to the acre ! Look to the 
quality of it. Do you not believe that a few ounces of beef are more nourish- 
ing to a man than a pound of potatoes ? Yes, Mr. Dumas is right ; there is a 
perfect analogy between animals and plants : and if in France this learned man 
was the first to proclaim this truth, I will be in America the first to have made 
its application in varying and in ameliorating the nourishment of plants accord- 
ing to their wants — like Nature, who has destined for each animal a different 
nourishment, and such as is suitable to its constitution. 

2. Immense advantages of the employinent of human excrements or animal 
dejections. 

Question. I can see very well the utility of feculent materials, but it appears 
to me that the quantity of human excrements produced by nine or ten persons 
living upon a farm, will scarcely serve to manure five acres. Now, if my farm 
is of one hundred acres extent, there will remain ninety-five acres which have 
not received this manuring. What say you ? 

Answer. The generality of large cities have but one river, or one water- 
source, for all their population, but these waters, distributed in small streams in 
each quarter, quench the thirst of all its inhabitants. It is the same with 
animal manure, which, distributed with skill through a great quantity of vegeta- 
bles or minerals, can feed a great deal of ground. The better to make you feel 
this truth, I give it as the result of my own observations, that a man renders per 
day at least three pounds of urine and other matters, in supposing even a loss 



; of two pounds of urine in the fields : this, multiplied by 365 days, gives a yearly 
product of 1,100 lbs. per person, or 11,000 lbs. for the ten persons who ordi- 
narily live upon a farm. Well, with these 11,000 lbs. of matter or liquids, by 
adding to them the elements which I have indicated in the table, you may pro- 
duce 220,000 lbs. manure, superior in quality to the same quantity of cattle 
manure. Now, acting upon a similar system, not only with human excrements, 
but also with the dung of cattle, will produce us such an enormous quantity of > 
manure, that we may confidently say that my method contains an entire agricul- \ 
tural revolution, for in agriculture everything is linked together ; and if you | 
apply more than 500,000 lbs. of manure, you will after that have more forage, \ 
consequently more cattle, consequently more manure ; more straw of all kinds, 
consequently more material to feed your manure manufactory : in a word, an 
infinite chain of successive amelioration. 

Article Third. — Waterings, 

1 . Effect of watering compared to that of my mineral composts. 

Question. In Article 8, in the body of the method, you say that it is more 
advantageous to fix the purin, or juice of the manure heap, in the composts, 
than to employ it in waterings. What is the advantage which results from 
this? 

Answer. Substances which fertilize the earth evaporate so rapidly that it is 
important to fix them in a solid body, rather than to put them in contact with 
the air by liquid exposure ; because, independently of the disagreeable taste 
which waterings Avith urine, or other corrupted matters, impart sometimes to 
forage and other plants, they present the further inconvenience of permitting the 
evaporation and loss of a large part of their fertilizing substances ; whereas, in 
fixing these same liquids in earth, and by adding to them the other elements of 
the lye, you obtain an earth manure, with which you manure plants, by dis- 
tributing to each a little nourishment, and thus you amend the soil — you do not 
harden it ; on the contrary, you hold it permeable to the rays of the sun, which 
hastens the growth of plants ; and notwithstanding the temporary humidity which 
is given to plants by watering, the mould or earth manure impregnates itself 
with dew, maintains the vegetables a longer time in superior freshness, and is 
more lasting, since it is both manure and amendment at once. Besides, this 
earth manure is prepared at spare times. When you make your compost prep- 
arations for seeding time, you can use these liquids as they are obtained, at least 
in the seasons when you do not manure the land ; whereas with waterings, 
when the purin-vat is full, the farmer is compelled to use his liquid manure even 
before the proper time for manuring has arrived. It is then a forced labor. In 
short, they manure a much larger surface with earth manure, which they spread 
in a greater or less quantity, according to the case, and which they throw in an 
equal manner upon all parts of the soil ; whereas by waterings upon an uneven 
surface (for a perfect level is not to be found in fields), the liquor is nearly all 
carried from the prominences into the depressions of the field, so that at least it 
is very sure of being spread in an unequal manner. I have made enough water- 



ings to be able to affirm these results to farmers. Further, I do not intend to 
impose rules upon agriculture. The two systems may offer their advantages 
according to the nature of soil and plants. It is with this view that I have put 
the process in the body of the method. But I ought to state a fact, which is, 
that the effect of mineral composts, or earth manures, upon sluggish grounds, 
have been much more sensible than waterings made even with my lye. 

2. Liquid manures compared to my composts. 

Question. I have read, in an agricultural journal, that in some countries of 
Europe they make use of liquid manures, and that they obtain from them good 
results. What are their processes ? To what kind of plants is this manure 
administered ? What is its quality ? Is it superior to your composts ? 

Answer. In various countries of Germany and France they use feculent 
materials in their primitive state, that is, in liquid, especially in Alsace, but 
more particularly in French Flanders, and this is the Flemish process : — 

Each farmer constructs a cellar in masonry some six hundred feet from his 
farm buildings. The bottom of the cellar is paved, and the four walls of the 
cylindrical vault which they support are built of brick. If the farm is large, 
they esiablish many cellars, one after the other. They giv^e to each cave two 
openings, one in the thickness of the vault and in the middle, the other in the 
north wall and in the surface of the circle of the vault. The first serves to 
introduce the substances, it is shut by a thick window ; the second, a smaller 
opening to the north, gives access to the air, which is necessary to start the 
fermentation. An ordinary cellar contains from 350 to 400 barrels of matter. 

Through the whole year, and especially when work presses the least, the 
farmers go to the neighboring cities in search of night soil, which they empty 
into these vaults, and in the course of some months' fermentation this liquid 
manure is carried upon the field by means of a cart, from the tail of which the 
liquid is permitted to flow. 

The use of this manure is principally reserved for the culture of oleaginous 
plants, colza,* flax, and also tobacco. They also make it serve to water the 
seeds of succulent plants intended for provender, such as carrots, turnips, &c. 
They spread it before and after seeding, or after transplanting. The transplants, 
especially those with large leaves, such as tobacco and colza, acquire in a (ew 
days great vigor. 

Such is the general feature of Flemish liquid manure. The Fleming is proud 
of this mode of manuring, which with him is perfectly successful ; but as, in my 
opinion, what is good in one covmtry may be good for nothing in another, I will 
endeavor to establish, that in America the application of this system would be 
dangerous. 

Whence comes it that the Flemings use with success their liquid manure ? 
It is that their soil, in general, is cold, and that a warm and quickly soluble 
manure is necessary for all cold and sluggish grounds. 

In America, where the climate is warm, the vegetation extremely active, the 
ground in general rather light than strong, rather warm and voracious than cold. 



BOMMER S METHOD 



earth manure, or composts, suit them better, because it serves to refresh the 
soil, rather than to heat it more by a Hquid manure, which is soluble as soon as 
it is put into the ground, and which renders the ground yet more craving for 
moisture, and drier after the watering. Now, to adopt the Flemish manure in 
America Avould be unwise. 

As to the liqiiid manures having urine for their basis, do you know what you 
carry upon the field with a cask of a thousand pounds of this liquid ? Nine 
hundred pounds of water certainly, which have not more fertilizing power than 
ordinary water. Chemists have decomposed urine, and have always found that 
it contained 940 lbs. of water. Well, is it not batter, and worth more, to carry 
out earth which shall have absorbed 1,000 lbs. of purin, because, after drying, 
the water will have disappeared, and this earth will have retained only the salts, 
and the substance of the purin. Whereas, if you spread your liquid upon a 
large surface, it loses a greater part of its gases by evaporation, it develops 
weeds rapidly, and it is of short duration, because it is soluble from the day of 
its application. Then you spread your liquid very unequally, because there 
does not exist a perfect plain, and water always seeking its level, will naturally 
settle more upon concave points than upon convex ; whence it follows, that some 
plants are but little fed, and others are burnt up or engorged by too much nour- 
ishing substance at a time. If it should come on to rain a little while after the 
liquid manuring, the manure, which is soluble, spreads, and escapes under the 
layer of vegetable earth. 

None of these inconveniences are present with my mineral compost or earth 
manure ; the contrary is realized, because this earthy manure is put at the roots 
of the plant, where it manures and amends at the same time, whereas the liquid 
manure hardens the soil and volatilizes itself. 

Question. But you say you do not see any advantage in liquid manuring, and 
yet you can not deny that the germination is more prompt, and that it diminishes 
the chance of the grain being devoured by insects before coming up 1 

Answer. I acknowledge that the argument would be good if there did not 
exist other means to make the grain sprout rapidly ; but the soaking in lime- 
water, to which every kind of grain ought to be submitted before sowing, will 
produce the same effect, and certainly the lime which envelops it would be more 
fatal to insects. Soot produces also the same effect, and cultivators of melons 
in the south of France, never neglect, before sowing, to soak this seed twenty- 
four hours at least, in advance, in a tub of soot-water. 

Beside, I will show you a new kind of soaking, which is a consequence of 
this method, and which, according to my own experiments, I believe to be the 
best of any known. 

Before planting or seeding the grain, let it remain twenty-four hours in a bath 
of lye made after this method. This soaking accelerates, in an astonishing 
manner, the germination of seed, especially those which had capsules, such as 
beans, red clover, peas, lentils, &c. ; and they are not devoured by insects, by 
reason of the bitterness and acrid taste occasioned by their steeping. 

The only advantage that I recognise in liquid manuring, and in this case it is 
limited, is in transplanting, because the plant being wrested from its nourishing 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 



71 



parent, in its instinctive efforts to resume the course of its interrupted life, seeks 
a quickly soluble nourishment, which will rapidly repair its lost strength. Thus, 
farmers and gardeners who practise transplanting, have observed that their liquid 
manure in this case produces wonders, but is rather a remedy than a nourish- 
ment. It is the same as when a tree is sick, the surest means to save it is to 
administer a liquid nourishment, as it has not the time to await the decomposi- 
tion of a compact manure. It is as the succulent broth which is given to a con- 
valescent, when a morsel of bread or of beef might compromise his existence. 

To resume, I do not observe, then, but a single advantage in liquid manuring, 
which is sooner to reanimate transplanted vegetables, and I can scarcely make 
this concession, because, if the transplants were watered immediately with pure 
water, or if there happen a seasonable rain, it would restore them every bit as 
well taking it for granted that the soil was manured. 

Secure of success with ray method, I condemn the system of liquid manures 
and waterings for general use. You may, perhaps, make an objection to my 
composts ; you may tell me that often one has not earth to sacrifice for composts, 
that they would be obliged to take it from a vegetable layer. If, indeed, there is 
but little vegetable earth, or if there is neither inequality of ground, nor slime, 
nor mud, the system of composts may cause some embarrassment ; but as it 
results that this earth, which is taken from the vegetable layer, is not lost, as it | 
is a conductor of manure, as it rests upon the soil of the same proprietor, I 
believe there are very few cases in which it would be impossible to displace a 
sufficient quantity of earth for this purpose. 

I conclude, then, that my compost constitutes one of the most important points 
of my method, that it will for ever replace all the composts fabricated in the dry 
way, and also the liquid manures. 

The last three chapters of the first part being of a secondary interest, and as 
they are, besides, sufficiently explained by the preceding, I will terminate this 
second part by the recapitulation of the advantages which result from the appli- 
cation of this system. 

Article Fourth. — Summary of the principal Advantages of this Method. 

From the whole of the first and the second parts, it will result that this 
method presents to agriculturists the following advantages : — 

1st. The decomposition, in a few days, of all straw, and green or dry ligneous 
vegetables, and their conversion into a rich, unctuous, and durable manure. So 
with all sorts of straws, whether wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, &c., potato 
vines, corn and tobacco stalks, and, in short, all kinds of plants, green or dry ; 
leaves from the woods, sugar-cane, and the like ; all kinds of weeds, sea-ores, 
rushes, docks, salt meadow grass, briers, heaths, clods of turf, peat ; in a word, 
all substances proceeding from vegetation, and a multitude of other objects 
which lie about a farm, can, by this method, be converted into manure. 

2d. That those who have straw at their disposal can convert it into manure 
immediately after the grain harvest and according to their localities, and will be 
in a condition to obtain, in the same year, a second harvest, instead of waiting 
nearly a year to convert, day by day, their straw into manure, under the feei of 
their cattle. 



72 bommer's method 

3. That those who may not have straw, will make their manure with ligneous 
plants, weeds, and any vegetables whatever, of which the greater part will 
decompose by ordinary means only in a few years. 

4th. That each one can himself fabricate his manures at will, consequently 
make his manures at the time when it is necessary to put them in the ground, 
an advantage the more precious, as it is the only means of preventing them from 
being moiddered, damaged, and despoiled of their juices. 

5th. That he can make his manures much more durable than those which he 
buys, or fabricates by the aid of cattle, because he conceives that divers sub- 
stances which decompose but slowly and successively, having been bedded 
together intimately, and divided by a liquid, ought to form various aggregates 
which the earth could decompose but slowly, and one after the other. 

6th. That he can easily, and without any complication, vary the manure 
according to the climate, the nature of the soil, and the plants. 

7th. That by means of a manure graduated and appropriated to the nature 
of the vegetable planted, he can force all kinds of plants with a vigor heretofore 
unknown. 

8th. That he can render useful what has heretofore been lost, particularly 
what annoys and infects habitations, such as rank weeds, litter of all kinds 
which accumulate about farms and houses, feculent materials, urines of the 
house, remains of animals, suds, kitchen slops ; in short, all the residues of the 
house. 

9th. That the lye is made cold, without chemical preparation ; that nearly 
the whole of the ingredients of which it is composed are found on each farm, 
and without cost ; that the water which is the base of the system costs nothing ; 
that, in fine, everything concurs to render it economical. 

10th. That by the great quantity of liquid which enters into its fabrication, 
the weight of the dry material is more than quadrupled, and that of the green 
vegetables is more than doubled. 

11th. That he will destroy, through the high fermentation, the germ of weeds 
which always infest the materials of manure, so that this manure will not pro- 
duce weeds upon the field, or other grain than you sow. That the lye thrown 
upon the manure heap of a farm, also causes the same result. 

12th. That he can rot his manure regularly — that is, that he can render it 
equally good and unctuous in all its parts, by means of a lye which distributes 
the salts and the soluble parts in a regular and uniform manner, which produces 
an equal crop upon all parts of the field. 

13th. That the system of watering with lye presents the advantage that 
the manure heaps will no more be white or mouldered, because they are main- 
tained in all their parts by an equal moisture, forming a soft and blackish mass, 
in which one part is neither fed nor moistened at the expense of the other. 

14th. That those who have neither straw nor vegetables can convert even ! 
the earth or soil upon the place into a very fertilizing earth manure. 

15th. That he can, with the greatest facility, and in a little time, make com- | 
posts which will surpass in quality the ordinary composts of the whole country, > 
which are barely obtained in one or two years. \ 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 73 

16th. That this earth manure will offer the advantage of being able, in the 
spring, to enliven the seeded fields, which may have suffered from the rigors of 
the winter, and to manure the grain which may have been sown without manure. 
] 7th. That these composts, or earth manures, are very precious to the culture 
of corn, tobacco, sugar-cane, cotton, and at the foot of trees, in gardening : the 
mineral compost has a great effect upon meadows. 

18th. In fine, that these composts maintain the freshness of the soil, and rapidly 
develop a glorious vegetation, especially when applied to fields of small grain. 

19th. That by means of the lye it will be easy to multiply the manure-heaps 
of a farm, which should oidy serve as a leaven to convert the masses of vege- 
tables into manure. 

20th. That he can, without fear of depriving his arable lands of manure, 
break up his pasture lands, since he can multiply his manure-heaps without 
enfeebling them. 

21st. That, by multiplying his manures, he can entirely suppress the ruinous 
system of fallowing ; for, since our wants are perpetually recurring, the earth 
should not rest in giving forth her abundance ; she sleeps only in winter, or 
during the excessive heat of the summer : in all other seasons, if you will only 
confide to her good manure, she will produce. 

22d. That all ponds, and residues of distilleries and manufactories, can be 
reduced to manure. 

23d. That gardeners can reanimate their hot-beds without changing their 
manure ; that they can obtain early produce much sooner than with the systems 
now in use, while they can make their manure as strong as they wish it. 

24th. That the products obtained from this manure will in general be more 
substantial, the forage and pulse more succulent, the grain heavier, &c. ;* 
because this manure, being well matured, combines all the necessary elements 
for the fertilization of the ground, and the proper nourishment of plants. In 
a word, that its use will cause an infinity of ameliorations in agricultural 
products. 

Such is the merit of this system, and such are the qualities which recommend 
it to the use of farmers. 

In the face of advantages so great, so positive, and so clearly demonstrated 
and proven, we are no longer permitted" to doubt that this method will render a 
great service to the country in augmenting the products of the soil, and that it 
will be a source of riches to individuals in putting them in a condition to double 
their crops. The most incurable prejudice, or utter folly, will alone be blinded 
to its utility. 



* Here I ought to acknowledge, that I have for a long while hesitated to mention this virtue 
of my manure, and if I have at length done so, it is certainly not to extol the system, but 
merely to obey my convictions, for the products obtained from this manure have always been 
of a quality superior to those obtnincd from other manures. 1 have done it also, so as not to 
be behind my subscribers, who, after having proved it in the ground, would, like me, recog- 
nise this virtue, and who then might believe that I was ignorant of it. I have, in fine, 
hesitated, because this virtue is of such immense importance to the destinies of the country 
that I had hardly dared to name it. 




BOMMER S METHOD 



SECTION FOURTH. 



SUPPLEMENTARY ARTICLES AS THE CONSEaUENCE OF THIS METHOD. 



1. Analysis of Earths. 

2. Division nf Manures. 

3. Preservation of Manures. 

4. Practical Results of the Method. 



Article First. — Analysis of Earths. 

The first study of a farmer should be a knowledge of the difTerent natures of 
the grounds which he cultivates, their various qualities, what they are capable 
of producing, and the manures which are suitable to them, so as to modify 
these grounds by amendments (which are also a mode of manuring) ; that is, 
by the mixture of various earths of opposite or different natures, or the intro- 
duction into the soil of such vegetable or mineral substances as may tend to 
modify the original nature of the tillable soil. 

1. Simple means to detect the nature of earths, without the aid of chemistry . 

Question. How, without the aid of chemistry, can a farmer learn approxi- 
mately the nature of his grounds ? 

Answer. Without the aid of chemistry, or the art to decompose bodies, it is 
difficult to analyze grounds with exactness ; but it is, nevertheless, very easy to 
make an incomplete and, in most cases, a sufficient analysis, without the aid of 
science. 

What is of most importance to know, is — 

1st. Is there lime in the soil ? 

2d. Is it clayey or sandy? 

3d. Does it contain much or little of humus ? 

You can proceed in the following manner : — 



Physical analysis, or that which can he appreciated by the senses. 

1st. To detect the presence of lime. 

At different places in the field, mix a small quantity of earth to the depth of 
the soil, and take a little from each mixture, so that you may have a handful of 
the average soil ; dry it by the fire or the sun ; then throw strong vinegar upon 
it. If it effervesces rapidly — that is, if it bubbles up, or puffs into small blis- 
ters — it is a proof that the earth is very calcareous, and that it contains more 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 75 

or less lime. If its bubbling is sluggish, there is but little lime ; if it does not 
effervesce, the ground is not calcareous, or it contains no lime. 

This point is of the utmost importance to know. 

2d. We wish to know if the earth is argillaceous or silicious (clayey or 
sandy). Rub between the thumb and finger a pinch of the moistened earth, 
and it is easy to judge by the touch if it is smooth, soft, or rough, or if it is 
clayey or sandy. If the argil prevails, the touch is smooth, soft, and soapy ; if 
the silex or sand prevails, the touch is rough. 

This a certain way to know, not the exact quantity of clay or sand which this 
earth contains, but whether the clay or sand predominates. 

If you wish to approach nearer to the truth, you put this earth in a bottle 
half full of water, shake it well, and, after standing a little while, pour it into a 
basin ; the argil or alumine goes with the first water, and the sand or silex, 
which is heavier in consequence of its parts being closer than those of the clay, 
remains at the bottom. Filter this argillaceous water through blotting-paper, dry 
it, and do the same with the sand. When the two earths are separated and 
dry, weigh them, and you will see whether there is more of sand or of clay. 
Before this last operation, you throw some strong vinegar upon this earth to dis- 
engage the carbonic acid, or that part of the air which the lime retains as long 
as the vinegar has not expelled it. It follows from that, that if there is very 
near as much sand as clay, it is a free earth. If there is much more sand than 
clay, it is sandy ground ; and if the clay prevails much, it is argillaceous ground. 
Free earth is composed of forty-five per cent, sand, about forty-five clay, five 
per cent, lime, and about five per cent, humus. 

3d. In order to know if the ground contains much humus, or decomposed 
remains of animal or vegetable matter (a state of decomposition which is very 
variable), place this earth, well dried and weighed previously, in a pot or cruci- 
ble of metal or earth, which you put upon a quick fire (before the operations of 
which I speak in numbers 1 and 2), and then stir it for some minutes. If there 
is much animal matter, a strong odor of burnt feathers is disengaged. If the 
material is vegetable, and the fire is sufficiently strong, you will see a blue 
flame. This is also easy to discover, by putting in contact with the interior 
bottom of the pot, a small piece of very dry wood : if it inflames, the vegetable 
detritus should consume ; then weigh it, and as the burnt animal or vegetable 
parts have scarcely any weight (nothing of them being left but their ashes), you 
will know very nearly, by means of a new weighing, how much was contained 
in the earth. The knowledge of the principles of lime and of humus is essen- 
tial. Now, each one can make this analysis of his lands ; it is only necessary 
for him to have a little concentrated vinegar and the balance of the house. 

2. Advantage resulting from this analysis. 
Question. What is the advantage, the utility of this analysis 1 
Answer. It will be of great use to you, because, if you observe that your soil 
is very calcareous, it would be useless to heat your grounds, and put much lime 
into your manure lye ; you will also then know what kinds of grasses best suit 
your lands. 




BOMMER S METHOD 

3. Interest which every one has in knowing the nature of his lands. 
Question. But what interest have I in knowing whether my lands are free, 

sandy, or clayey ? one knows by his experience what kinds of plants are most 
suitable for his grounds. 

Answer. Certainly; but if you know that your soil is free, you are not igno- 
rant that you are in the best condition to obtain the finest products. If your 
ground is clayey, you seek the means to amend it with sand, in order to approach 
free soil. In fine, if it is sandy, you strive to amend it with clayey ground in 
the vicinity, or with sub-soil, at least if you do not wish to cultivate bulbous- 
rooted plants, which prosper in ground where, out of fifteen parts, there are 
fourteen of sand. You have also this advantage, to be able, by means of amend- 
ments, to introduce into your fields new cultures, especially when you know how 
to vary and appropriate your manures. 

4. Means to detect marl. 

Question. Will this process enable us to discover marl ? for I know how it 
acts, but I am ignorant of what it is composed. 

Answer. Nothing is more simple than to detect marl, whether white, carroty 
or brown, sandy or argillaceous. Whenever you doubt whether you have dis- 
covered an earth which contains marl, you should throw upon it strong vinegar ; 
if it effervesces very rapidly, and if this earth contains a third of alumine or 
argil, or of impalpable matter, you may be very sure of its being argillaceous 
marl ; if, on the contrary, it contains more sand than clay, it is silicious, and 
then you employ it as an amendment, in applying the one and the other to earths 
of an opposite nature. 

Article Second — Division of Manures. 

1. Manure heaped up at any point is prejudicial to vegetation at that place. 
Question. What is the advantage which results from the judicious division 

of manures 1 

Answer. It is remarked that the plants do not require manure heaped upon a 
point, as it is rather an obstacle to the play and development of the roots. 
Therefore divide the manure, especially animal manure, which loses so soon its 
fertilizing properties by atmospheric influence, and the attack of insects. By 
attending to this you double or triple the means of action. In order to make 
you comprehend well the advantage which results from the division of manures, 
I will cite some examples. 

2. Advantage resulting from the division of manure. 

Bury a small quantity of human manure at the foot of a mulberry. The lat- 
eral roots of the tree will turn aside to this aliment, but these roots can only 
appropriate a small portion of these matters, and this principle tends so rapidly 
to its destruction, that it is suddenly attacked by insects, and there results a loss 
Avhich may be valued at nine tenths, and yet the mulberry will not be found to 
have nourished itself through more than one or two roots. See, then, a mate- 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 77 

rial which, placed in an unfavorable condition, is almost totally lost. Now, for 
example, I throw in three pints of water ; I dissolve it by stirring ; I uncover 
the earth around the mulberry ; I pour a little of this lye all over ; I cover it 
with the earth which had been removed, and I obtain a positive result from this 
simple division of the element of manure. We know very well that nothing is 
lost, the insects can not get at it, each particle of earth is impregnated with a 
fraction of the manure, which it keeps to administer to the roots all around. 

We see upon a meadow fresh dung which the ox has dropped, and which, in 
some days, will be devoured by insects and dried by the air and the sun. I 
pick up this fresh dung, and I dissolve it in water ; I fix the liquid in the earth, 
and with this earth pulverized I feed a superfices ten times larger than it occu- 
pied when first dropped. The place where the animal had dropped it is found 
sufficiently manured after the matter has been removed from it ; and I avoid this 
crowd of insects, which, coming out of the matter full winged, multiply where 
the dung has fallen, to torment and distract the cattle. 

What in effect do I do ? I charge a boy of the farm to gather all the dejec- 
tions of my cattle which can be conveniently done ; I throw them into my reser- 
voir of saturated water, and while enriching this water with fertilizing princi- 
ples, I, at the same time, accelerate its putrefaction, and in having a saturated 
water, well corrupted and well charged with animal materials, I can then, in the 
fabrication of my manures, diminish the quantities of the other ingredients of 
the lye, without injury to the quality of my manure, and I have attained this 
economy by the sole reason that I have lost nothing. 
I A horse dies ; I suppose that a farmer divides it and spreads pieces of its 
flesh upon various points, or more intelligent still, that he places it in a hole, in 
putting light earth above and below, with lime, as is also recommended by our 
best authors. What are the consequences ? In the first case, the dogs, the 
crows, the rats, and other animals, will have retaken that which seems to have 
been their own of right, or, at least, scarcely will some particles of earth give here 
and there a little manure ; and in the second case, he will have obtained a cer- 
tain quantity of earth charged with animal matter. But in this last case, also, 
the loss will have been immense, because the insects and the atmosphere, which 
always penetrate the soil, will have, during a space of four or five months, the 
time necessary for the destruction of the flesh, taken away nine tenths of the 
value of the animal. Now, what is ray practice ? I put the animal in the 
middle of a large heap of manure, after having cut it into many pieces in order 
to facilitate its adjustment in the heap ; and that it may decompose itself more 
easily, I make five or six waterings, in place of three, after having added a little 
more lime to the lye. This animal weighed 500 lbs. I obtain in twenty or 
twenty-five days, 2,500 lbs. of a valuable extract, with which, in adding some 
salts, I produce 2,500 lbs. of earth manure. What is it which has produced 
this result ? It is the extreme division of the element of manure operating by 
the fermentation which evolves the azotic principle of the animal. If the ani- 
mal dies at a time when I am not fabricating my manure, well, I throw it into 
my reservoir of saturated water after having cut it into many pieces, and I add, 
from time to time, a little quick lime to absorb the ammonia or the odor. 



78 bommer's method 

Thus, then, it must be concluded, that in dividing manures one procures an 
advantage, and that it is a positive advantage, by the intelligent use of the divis- 
ion of matter. Now, what are the means to produce this division? There 
exists but one ; it is the present method. 

Article Third. — Preservation of Manures — Mode in use compared to that 

which I propose. 

Question. You must have visited many farms, and have seen how the farm- 
ers do to preserve their manure from one season to another, and how they apply 
it. Do you think their mode advantageous or can you name a better ? 

Answer. I have been in many states, and have seen a great number of farms. 
I have seen, that the litter which they throw from the stables is put into small 
heaps, near the stable doors, and that other heaps were upon divers places of 
the farm, occupying a large surface, and being only two or three feet high ; that 
in the barn-yard they had spread, as it was needed, straw in such a manner, so 
often that the whole surface of the barn-yard is covered with litter, forming a 
bed two or three feet thick, from which the liquid is always escaping. I asked 
of each farmer why he made such a disposition of his manure 1 The greater 
part of them replied that it was the custom of the country, and that they did as 
their ancestors did. But one of them, better instructed, told me that he let his 
litter remain from three to six months in the barn-yard, because it was too much 
trouble to take it away periodically to heap it outside ; that besides, in 
this manner, this litter decomposed slowly by means of the rains, the urine and 
the detritus of his cattle ; that as to the stable manures, he only raised them 
two or three feet, because in this manner the rains could penetrate them, and 
bring them into a fine fermentation, which kept them fresh for six months, and 
until their being used ; that if they were raised seven or eight feet high, the 
rain would not wet them, they would be no more fermented, and would not be 
sufficiently matured at the season of their being put in the ground. 

By this well-established reasoning, the question is placed upon its true 
grounds, and by giving my reply to the farmers, you can judge which of the two 
is right. 

Well, I maintain that you ought to raise the litter of your barn-yard every 
fifteen days, or at least all the month ; remove this from the stables every eight 
or ten days ; form it into a heap, and raise it six or ten feet high, whether you 
have the intention to use it immediately, or to preserve it for six or eight 
months. 

If you put in your manures in a short time — for example, in a month — it is a 
great error not to raise the manure-heaps above two or three feet, because they 
will not have time to make, either from being chilled by the ground, or because 
you have not watered them, and that the rains, upon which you count to do your 
work gratuitously, may, contrary to orders, not come for two months ; and even 
should the rain come the next day, after having built your heap two or three feet 
high above the soil, you will have a slow fermentation, because it is necessary 
to raise the manure-heap five or six feet at least, for a rapid fermentation to 
come with the aid of waterings. 



FOR MAKING- MANURE. 79 

If you wish to preserve your manures for a long lime, they must be raised 
seven or eight feet high at least, because if you keep them low they will occupy 
a large surface ; as this surface is spread, the more they will be washed by the 
rains, and the more they will lose their juices ; the air, the wind, and the sun, 
will dissipate the gases, which should be preserved. 

But, say you, if I wish to preserve my manure-heaps for a long time, and if 
I raise them very high, I am certain to have nothing more than mould in place 
of manure, because the heaping of a large mass of litter will cause a prompt 
and powerful fermentation, which, by its length, will destroy in place of pre- 
serving it : whereas, in keeping them low and moist by the rains, I maintain 
them fresh for the next six months, and I have not sustained any loss. 

I reply to you, that your objection, which seems just at first sight, is in truth 
not so, and I show your error from this : — you suppose that the rains which wet 
your heaps of two or three feet thickness, would moisten equally a heap of ten 
feet high ; but it is not so. Take notice that you seek to preserve the rain- 
waters even at the moment of their fall, and that I seek to spread them, because 
I wish to water my manures where I think it useful, and not when it pleases 
the clouds to discharge themselves upon the earth. You follow chance ; I go 
as a man with a torch in his hand. I wet my manures a little before using 
them, and I make them by the help of a regulated fermentation, decomposed 
much or little, according to the grounds and the plants to which I wish to apply 
them ; also in taking them from the stable and the barn-yard, my manures are 
not watered, they are scarcely in a humid state, and it is in this state that I throw 
them into a very high heap ; I heap them and water them ; but upon each foot 
of the heap which I build, I spread a layer of earth four or six inches thick, 
which has the faculty of preventing fermentation, and which becomes mould ; 
this gives me a surplus of manure. I hold them in a kind of an insulated bath ; 
I arrange them in such a manner that the air, the sun, and the water, can neither 
dry them, nor wash them, nor reach them ; I form a kind of shed of the manure 
itself to cover it, and to expose it as little as possible to its enemies, up to the 
time to which I seek to preserve it, as it is, without contemplating its ameliora- 
tion. I do not wish to ferment it, because I must preserve it for many months, 
and I have a greater certainty by my method of preserving my manures, than 
you have to make yours, since I protect all my manures, and you encounter 
immense losses by its being displayed upon a large surface ; your manures are 
not enriched, their juices run off, or are evaporated. Every new rain which 
falls displaces the juices, and after many displacements of this kind, the 
manure which remains has no longer the smell of ammonia, it becomes dry 
and spongy, and is nothing more than the ghost of manure. In vain you make 
a large hole in the ground to retain the juices of the heap, which are washed 
out by the heavy rains ; in a large yard this hole is full in an instant, and 
nothing can prevent the escape of the blackish mass of juices which are lost 
out of it. 

Well, this accident, which is of incalculable importance, does not occur with 
me. My heap, when raised, presents but a small surface ; I incline its top like 
the roof of a house ; the rains do not penetrate it, and consequently I never lose 



80 



BOMMER S METHOD 



its juices ; the fermentation is suspended, and no loss is sustained by the effect 
of the sun and the air, which would carry off its ammoniacal gas. Then, when 
the time for manuring approaches, I take measures for seasoning and maturing 
it. Thus, if we are at the autumnal rains, I open the top of the heap, trumpet- 
shaped, so as the rain can penetrate it : I make near to it a large hole in the 
ground, to receive what may flow from it, which will never be abundant, because 
my upper surface is small, and the heap is high. In the water which flows 
from the heap, I throw the elements of my lye, and with a dipper, or buckets, 
or a pump, I make a very efficient watering, having first made holes all over the 
upper surface of the heap, in order that the lye may be spread regularly through 
the whole mass of manure, and that the fermentation, which had been suspended 
for so long a time, may start with vigor, and, if I so wish it, furnish me with 
decomposed and enriched manure in place of yours, which has been washed 
and discolored, and whose parts you believe to be rich, because they are humid, 
have been fed with rain-water, instead of the salts and substantial juices which 
the rain has washed out of them. 

I am convinced that your ancient process is a prolific source of the miscalcu- 
lations which have been made by following its application. If, for example, you 
carried these manures, thus washed and despoiled of their juices, upon a light 
and sandy soil, how could you hope for a good crop of grain, if it should not 
prove a wet season 1 In time of a great drought, a rich manure, and charged 
with salts, preserve the freshness of the soil and plants ; the salts impregnate 
the dews, and they are thus administered to plants : whereas with a manure dry 
and discolored the earth has nothing to protect it from the burning rays of the 
Sim, the dews become of no effect, the seed languishes, and the crop fails. It 
is necessary, then, that the farmer should use all his efforts to employ manures 
in their highest perfection, because the better he preserves them, the more he 
will provide against loss. 

Now, the best way is to make a great deal of litter-manure a month before 
the time of putting in his manures, and after this time to put no more under the 
feet of his cattle than just enough to. collect their dung and urine, and to prevent 
them from becoming stained and dirty in lying down : that is, if he does not 
wish to adopt my system of manure described in Chapter 10. 

As it is easier to take care of and preserve a small quantity of manure than 
a large one, you will guard with precaution this small quantity, which will serve 
at seed-time for a leaven to convert into manure all the straw which you can 
spare. It will result from that, that you will have avoided a great loss of sub- 
stances in the straw, which should be buried in about fifteen days of fermenta- 
tion in their state of perfect manure, ripened to the point wished for, instead of 
being deteriorated by a six-months' exposition to the air, and a destructive fer- 
mentation ; for I repeat to you that the slow fermentation of your barn-yard lit- 
ter, and of your three-feet-high heap, is as pernicious to the fertilizing matter as 
the loss of juices by the rains, the air, and the sun. 

Thus, it will be easy to calculate, from the crop of straw, that, for example, 
it being thirty tons, fifteen ought to sufiice for the nourishment and litter strictly 
necessary for the cattle, and that therefore you should preserve, for the month 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 

of September, fifteen tons, which in fifteen days will be converted into sixty 
tons of manure. 

There is still another objection which you will not fail to make, and to whicli 
I respond at once, in order to finish and entirely to clear up this question, 
namely, " Which is the best of our two processes 1" 

You tell me that your barn-yard manure makes itself; that one has only the 
labor of filling the carts and transporting it to the fields ; that you profit by the 
rains, and that it is watered without work ; whereas with me water is necessary, 
which is far from always being at one's disposal ; and that, in fine, I must have 
hands to put the manure into a heap, and to water it. This is true : but first 
take notice, that, according to my process, your manures will be worth double ^ 
and triple, when you take into consideration its fertilizing principles, and then 
consider well whether your success depends more upon the quantity or the 
quality of your manures. Now, it seems to me that it is well worth your pains 
to devote a few days to this essential branch of your establishment, to seek the 
means of collecting the waters from the heavens, and that you would do well to 
irrigate your manures with it at the time when this work is necessary. In fine, 
use the two systems to be able to compare them, and let me know which you ■ 
decide upon keeping. 

Yes, I consent to this, and the more willingly that yours appears to be more 
rational than mine, and I promise to let you know the result. 

Well, sir, I wish you success. Adieu. 

Wherever I have continued my visits, I have seen manure treated in the same 
way. All acknowledge that the juices of the manure-heap are diluted and 
wasted by the rains, but they add : — " What do you wish me to do 1 it ean not 
be otherwise." I believe that I have demonstrated that it can be otherwise j 
that the cost of the labor, which consists in removing from the stables, heaping 
up, and watering the manure-heaps, at the proper time, instead of trusting to 
chance waterings by rain, is, compared to the benefits which result from it, so 
small, that no one can seriously make the objection, or pretend that it is better 
to await the rain and let it be despoiled of a greater part of its worthj, rather 
than to preserve it at the expense of some care and trouble. 

I have seen, also, that in a great number there were parcels of small heaps 
of litter-manure upon various fields ; that upon other places there was manure 
which had been spread for a long while ; and after examination I found that it 
was more than a month that these heaps had been there, without the farmers 
ever having dreamt of burying them ; also, these manures had no more odor, 
and they were but the ghosts of manure. 

But if the mode of burying the manures immediately after being carried into 
the field, as is recommended by science, presents great advantages, this prac- 
tice acquires still further importance in the application of my vegetable manure. 
In fact, my fermented manure being richer in gases and juices than those from 
cattle, and these gases tending to evaporation, it is very important to bury them, 
as they are transported into the fields ; it is a sure means of maintaining them 
in all their power to benefit the plants. 

I seize, then, this occasion expressly to recommend not to open a heap of : 

6 ; 



82 bommer's method 

manure made after this method, but when the fermentation is over ; and not to 
transport and spread it upon the field until he is ready to till the field ; or, what 
would be better still, would be to throw it from the cart into the furrow while 
the plough is covering it ; that is to say, that while one man is tilling the field, 
another transports the manure and throws it from the cart into the furrow which 
the plough is next to cover ; and so continuing the operation, the manure will 
be covered in all its freshness, and consequently in all its power. This prac- 
tice is also recommended by our best agricultural writers. 

But, say you, this system is only practicable upon farms where there is an 
abundance of hands and beasts of labor, but that with you, who can only run 
one plough, it is impossible to haul, and spread, and cover in the manure at the 
same time. 

Your remark is just, and to remove this obstacle I name to you another means 
of saving your manures from deterioration, in case you let them remain for a j 
long time upon the fields. 

If you want to transport your manures a long time before ploughing time, you 
form, at equal distances, small heaps all over the field, each of which will con- 
tain one or two cart-loads of manure ; then you will take care to cover all the 
surface of these heaps with the earth of the vicinity. By this very simple pre- 
caution, you assure to yourself advantages which compensate for much of the 
labor of this operation. In fact, the manure, thus covered, completes its ripening ; 
no more is lost by evaporation. The earth serving to envelope it is converted 
into a good mould, which further augments the quantity of manure. In acting 
thus you can transport your manures at spare moments. I have so preserved 
small heaps of manure for three summer months, and at the opening, I was not 
a little surprised to see it fresh as when it came from the farm. 

Article Fourth. 

Question. Finally, your method having been in circulation for a long while, 
it ought to be in use in a great many farms. Are they satisfied with the result ? 

Answer. My system is already adopted on a great many farms in all parts of 
the Union, and I have the satisfaction to say to you that all those who have tried 
it are highly satisfied with the result, as you will find in all the agricultural 
papers, reports of agricultural societies, and certificates of distinguished farmers, 
who attest the efficacy of this manure, and the advantages of the system. 

I will conclude this work by the insertion of a letter written by a distin- 
guished farmer near New York, a subscriber to this method : — 

" Sir : Your method, and the results which followed my application of it, 
have suggested to me some reflections which you are at liberty to publish, if you 
judge them useful to agriculture. 

" To my mind, one of the causes of the slow progress of our agriculture con- 
sists in the fatal delusion of farmers in the production of manures by cattle, and 
upon the necessity of stimulating amendments, such as lime, plaster, ashes, &c., 
used by so many farmers. Those who have the imprudence to write that the 
only means of agricultural prosperity consists in the purchase of many cattle. 



I 



FOR MAKING MANURE. 83 

for them to consume all the straw of the farm, and who counsel the employment 
of stimulants, without being much concerned about their cost, and their different 
applications, according to the nature of soils and plants, have never done any- 
thing in the agricultural arts but in their closets. They have never yet felt the 
consternation which takes away from the true farmer all his faculties when he 
perceives his workman lifting the last cart-load of manure, and in raising his 
head he sees beyond a vast field to manure, all tilled, all ready to receive a 
sowing, but which will not produce the expenses of labor. He sees it without 
hope of finding other manures for a long while. As for myself, I feel very oppo- 
site sensations ; I hasten to carry off my heaps, to replace them by others ; I 
fabricate earthy manure for my artificial and natural meadows ; in one word, I 
make as much manure as needed on my farm. The benefits which I derive 
from your method are immense, since, previous to my becoming acquainted with 
it, I made scarcely one hundred and fifty loads of cattle manure, which was 
about one fourth of the quantity I wanted to keep my farm in a high state of cul- 
tivation ; I had, therefore, to buy four or five hundred dollars' worth of manure 
every year. Now, I not only avoid this expense, but my land is far better 
manured than formerly. And how much money do you suppose I have expended 
in the making of this mass of manure ? Just twenty-four dollars for lime. The 
other materials were on my farm, and cost me only the trouble of collecting and 
bringing into one place. Thus, I say it confidently, agriculture has suffered, 
because farmers knew no other manure than that made from cattle, or the most 
expensive stimulants ; and it will be solely from the method you have given us, 
liow to make our manure otherwise, that agriculture will henceforth make rapid 
progress. I do not believe that a more important truth has ever been proclaimed 
to the world. 

" These, my dear sir, are all the testimonials I can give you. I trust they 
will prove satisfactory to you ; and as I do not consider your method one which 
ought to be changed every day, and do believe, on the contrary, that it will 
endure as long as agriculture itself, I urge you to take suitable measures to prop- 
agate it promptly, for its introduction into farms will not fail to cause happy 
results to the profit of agriculture, and consequently, of the country." 

You see, then, my dear reader, the consequences which result from an intel- 
ligent application of this system. Therefore imitate this worthy and intelligent 
farmer. Like him act with intelligence and skill ; 'display ingenuity in the 
organization of your place of operations ; pursue your labors with perseverance, 
and be certain that very soon you also will be in a situation to address me lines 
as satisfactory as the above. Meanwhile you have my most sincere wishes for 
your agricultural prosperity. 




CONTENTS. 



COPY-RIGHT 3 

PATENT-RIGHT 4 

PREFACE 5 

PART FIRST. 
SECTION FIRST. 

AsricjLK 1. Saturated water, its preparation 13 

2. Place of operation 14 

3. Grate upon which the heap is built 15, 16 

4. Reservoir for the lye 16, 17 

5. TaUe of materials of which the lye is composed 17 

6. Materials which may he substituted to those designated in the table. . . 17 

7. Composition of the lye 18 

8. Manner of making the manure • . 19 

8. First process, by immersion , 19 

8. Second process, by irrigation or watering 20, 21 

8. Waterings 21-23 

SECTION SECOND. 

Article 1. Vegetable compost or mould 24 

" 1. First process, by high fermentation 24 

" 2. Second process, by moderated fermentation 28 

" 3. Vegeto-mineral compost, without fermentation 25, 26 

" 4. Earth manure 26 

" 4. First process • 26 

" 4. Second process 26, 27 

SECTION THIRD. 

Article 1. Means to augment and ameliorate farm manure 27, 28 

" 2. Means to prepare " purin," a fertilizing liquid for watering 28, 29 

'" 3. To employ the dregs or lees, and residues of distilleries and manu- 
factories. 29, 30 

4. Mode of reviving the heat under the hot-beds, without changing the litter 30 



L 



CONTENTS. 85 



PART SECOND. 
SECTION FIRST. 

Article 1. Vegetable, compared to animal manure 31, 32 

" 1. Four advantages of the Bommer manure over that of cattle 32-35 

« 2. Fermentation 35 

" 2. Opinion of authors concerning the fermentation of manures 35, 36 

'' 2. Bommer's opinion concerning the fermentation of manures 36, 37 

" 3. Application of Bommer's manure to various earths 38-42 

" 4. Application of Bommer's manure according to the nature of the plant 42, 43 

" , 5. Solution of the problem put by the celebrated Payen 43 

" 6. Nourishment of plants, and of what they are composed. 43 

" 7. Vegetable metempsychosis, or transmutation of a dead into a living 

vegetable 43-45 

" 8. Economy 45, 46 

SECTION SECOND. 

Article 1. Saturated water, divided in four classes, or distinct qualities 46, 47 

" 2. Place of operation. 48 

" 2. If it is absolutely necessary to construct a grate ? 48 

'' 2. Employment of old boards, in place of beating the surface of the place 

of operation 48 

" 3. Lye ingredients 48-54 

" 3. Retrenchment of the soot, salt, and saltpetre 54, 55 

" 3. Employment of ground bones, horn shavings, sawdust, ground charcoal, 
blood, and other residues of butcheries, and those of salting establish- 
ments 55 

" 4. Composition of the lye 56 

" 4. Reduction and augmentation of the ingredients 56 

" 4. Variation of the quantity of the ingredients according to the size of the 

heap 56, 57 

" 4. The least and the greatest quantity of materials that can be employed 

in our operation 57 

" 4. Virtue of the lye — what it is 57, 58 

" 5. Manner of making the manure 58 

" 5. Mode of making the manure as short and fine as you please 58, 59 

" 5. Necessity of the mixture of the leaves of trees, with other vegetables, 59, 60 
" 5. Covering the heap with straw, and not with other materials; the reason 

for doing so 60 

" 5. Destruction of the heap, advantage which results from it 61 

" 5. Labor , 61 

SECTION THIRD. 

Article 1. Vegetable and mineral composts ■ 62 

" 1. Mixture of vegetables with turfy materials, proportions to be observed 

in- this mixture 1 62 

'*' 1. The most favorable season for the preparation of composts 62, 63 

" 1. If it is advantageous to use compost in a fresh state 63 

" 1 . The preservation of composts 63 

" 1. Regulations to observe in the fabrication of composts 63, 64 

" 1. European composts or moulds, compared to mine 64, 65 



86 CONTENTS. 

Abticlz 1. Poudrette compared to my composts 65, 66 

" 1. Means to augment considerably the manure of a farm 66 

" 2. Dried earth in place of straw, as litter for beasts 66, 67 

" 2. Immense advantages of the employment of human excrements, or ani- 
mal dejections 67, 68 

" 3. Waterings with urinous or putrified liquids 68 

" 3. Effect of this watering, compared to that of my mineral composts 68, 69 

'' 3. Liquid manures compared to my composts 69-71 

" 4. Summary of the principal advantages of this Method; twenty-four 

advantages 71-73 

SECTION FOURTH.— SupLEMENTARY Aeticles. 

Abticle 1. Analysis of earths 74 

" 1. Simple means to detect the nature of earths, without the aid of chym- 

istry 74 

" 1. Physical analysis, or that which can be appreciated by the senses 74, 75 

" 1. Advantage resulting from this analysis 75 

" 1. Interest which every one has in knowing the nature of his lands 76 

" 1. Means to detect marl 76 

" 2. Division of manures 76 

" 2. Manure heaped up at any point is prejudicial to vegetation at that place 76 

" 2. Advantage resulting from the division of manure 76-78 

" 3. Preservation of manures — mode in use compared to that which I propose 78- 82 
^' 4. Results which have been obtained from this method 82, 83 



87 



APPENDIX. 

PRACTICAL UTILITY OF THE METHOD 

TESTED BY PRACTICAL MEN. 

From the Albany Cultivator, 

Bommer's method of making manure. — We iavite attention to the annexed report of 
Dr. Beck on Bommer's method of preparing manure. From a careful examination of the 
specifications and directions furnished us by Mr, Bommer, as well as from a personal examina- 
tion of the process, from the forming of the heap to its opening, we are convinced that the 
method must prove valuable, and the manure so prepared of the best quality. There are 
many farms on which immense quantities of coarse grass, thistles, sedge, flags, and other weeds, 
are annually grown, of which no use can be profitably made — all these, and with them the 
large piles of straw which are heaped round many barns to cause them to decay, may by this 
method be expeditiously and cheaply converted into the best of manure, the cost of the mate- 
rials, which the larmer will have to purchase, being only from fifteen to twenty cents per cord, 
and the labor only such as is necessary to form a compost heap of any kind : — 

REPORT, 

On Bommer's Method of making Vegetable Manure by Fermentation. 

At the request of Mr. Bommer, the undersigned were present, on September 14, at the prepara- 
tion of the materials used by him for making the above manure. As Mr. Bommer's process is 
patented, it will, of course, not be expected that the committee can go into details farther than 
what he himself makes public. They have, however, no hesitation in stating that the mate- 
rials mentioned in his specification were all used ; that the experiment was in every respect 
fairly made ; and that the whole is evidently conducted on the most approved chemical 
principles. 

Two heaps were prepared, the first made of dry materials, principally straw of various 
grains, and probably weighing about 1,000 lbs. ; the second was composed of ligneous ve'^eta- 
bles, diy and green, such as cornstalks, potalo-stems, thistles, and various other weeds. This 
weighed probably about 450 lbs., and was propped against the first heap. 

The following table was kept at the request of the committee. It exhibits the degree of 
heat developed during the process of fermentation, ascertained daily by immersing the bulb of 
the thermometer in the centre of each heap : — 



First Heap — Dry Straw. 



Sept. 



15 at 6 o'clock, P 

16 at 
at 

17 at 
at 

18 at 

19 at 

20 at 
at 

21 at 
at 

22 at 

23 at 10 

24 at 10 

25 at 10 

26 at 10 

27 at 10 

28 at 9 



M. 
M. 
M. 
M. 
M. 



A, 
P. 
A. 
P. 

A. M 103 

P. M 95 

A. M 102 



Degrees. 
. 76 
. 87 
. 90 
. 96 
. 98 



M. 
M. 
M., 
M., 



107 
113 
117 
126 
112 
123 
137 
152 
116 
122 



SecoTid Heap — Green Stuff. 

Degrees. 

Sept. 16 at 6 o'clock, P. M. 80 

« 17 at 7 « A. M 109 

« at 6 « P.M 127 

« 18 at 8 « A. M 161 

« 19at 5 « P.M , 136 

« 20 at 7 « A. M 152 

« at 6 « P.M 161 

« 21 at 7 « A.M 173 

« at 6 « P.M 178 

« 22at 7 « A.M 184 

« 23 at 10 « " 142 

« 24 at 10 " " 157 

« 25 at 10 « « 182 

« 26 at 10 " « 201 

« 27 at 10 " « 138 

« 28 at 9 " « 146 

The fermentation was discontinued September 28, when the heaps were opened for exhibition. 
The committee examined them on the 8th of October, and are quite satisfied that the result is 
a satisfactory one. The heap formed of 1,000 lbs. dry straw was found to contain by measure- 
ment 225 solid feet, or one cord and three quarters, estimated to weigh 4,000 lbs. The material 
furnished must prove a valuable manure, and the more so as it employs many articles now 
worthless or deleterious. In all matters of this nature, experience is of course worth more 
than Hiere theory ; but it will be a matter of great disappointment, if a process, combining as 
this does an application of the most correct chemical principles with the employment of the 
most efficient agents, does not in due time become a favorite with the farmer. 

T. R. BECK, Chairman. 



From the Long Island Star. 
A NEW ERA IN THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 

MEETING IN FLATBUSH. 

It Will be observed by the following statement that every farmer may now manufacture any 
quantity of manure he may require for his own use. 

A committee, consisting of the following gentlemen — Elias Hubbard, Esq., of Flatlands ; 
Ferdinand L. Wickoff, of New Lots ; Michael Stryker, of Flatbush ; Henry S. Ditmas, of Flat- 
bush ; Johannes Lotts, Jr., of Flatlands — appointed from a large company of farmers, assembled 
to examine Mr. George Bommer's method of making vegetable manure by fermentation, on the 
premises of Garret Kowenhoven, Esq., of Flatlands, in this county — 

Respectfully keport — 

That, after careful examination of a heap laid up on the 19th of April, and opened this after- 
noon (May 3, 1843), they most cheerfully acknowledge, that the change produced upon the 
materials used, far exceeded their most sanguine expectations ; said materials, consisting of 
straw and salt hay, presented, when opened, the appearance and smell of rich manure. 

Said committee further report, that they also examined the book containing Mr. Bommer's 
method, and are fully persuaded that the various ingredients used are all in themselves bene- 
ficial, and in their combination must produce the most favorable results. The committee most 
\ cordially commend the above method to the serious consideration of the farmers of Long Island. 
I By order of the committee: ELIAS HUBBARD, 

Flatlands, May 3, 1843. Chairman. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 

Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker : — Being a subscriber and constant reader of your valuable 
agricultural publication, I frequently find there articles on " Bommer's Method of making 
Manure." As these articles are chiefly from the pens of agriculturists, who have followed 



this method with entire success, it affords me unfeigned pleasure to be able, on my own behalf, 
also to bear testimony to the value of this method, and through the medium of your paper, to 
make the results of my experiments and operations known to my fellow-citizens. This I do, 
both for the sake of bringing before the public the great advantages derived from using the 
method spoken of, and the benefits insured me by its application, and at the same time in order 
to render a deserved tribute to the truth. 

On purchasing Bommer's iMethod last spring, I immediately prepared a heap in the presence 
of a few neighbors. I followed strictly the directions laid down in Bommer's book. After the 
lapse of a fortnight, the heap was opened in the presence of a number of farmers, and our 
astonishment can not be conceived, on seeing the metamorphosis which had taken place, as we 
found all those weedy and stramineous materials of which the heap had been constructed, 
reduced to a rich, black manure, having an ammoniac smell, much more pungent than the best 
stable manure. Beholding so surprising a result, the farmers present formed themselves into 
a public meeting, and in that capacity nominated a committee from their midst, who were 
charged with the preparation of a report of what we had seen, to be sent to the agricultural 
press. 

I ploughed in this manure into one half of a field intended for potatoes, and in order to insti- 
tute a comparison of effects, I put the same quantity of my best stable manure into the other 
half of the field. The effect on the soil was very nearly the same with both these kinds of 
manure; but the vegetation on that part of the field which had been furnished with Bommer's 
manure was more luxurious, and the foliage of a deeper verdure, which I attribute to the 
richness of the saline matter which it contains, and which alone preserved the humidity of the 
soil during the severe drought of this last season. It is proper to remark, also, that in the 
composition of the "Bommer's Manure," I employed simply such doses of the ingredients as 
were absolutely necessary to insure success in the operation of making it, and if I had 
increased these quantities, there is not the least doubt that the result of the Bommer manure 
would have been very far superior to that of any horse manure. 

Perfectly satisfied with my experiment and its results, I have put up fixtures near my barn- 
yard, for the purpose of preparing large quantities of this manure ; and within the last two 
months I have made three heaps, which have yielded me between 200 and 300 loads of excel- 
lent manure. The last heap was composed entirely of 100 loads of sedge grass, nearly dry, 
with which I mixed 40 loads of swampy matter, such as exists on my farm. All my outlay in 
purchasing ingredients to form the lye for three heaps, was about $25, and in disbursing this 
trifling sum, 1 made a lot of manure which I would not dispose of for $250. 

I shall prepare other heaps of manure before the winter sets in, and those who may be 
desirous to see me at work, and to assure themselves of the truth of what I have said, need 
only call at my farm, and judge for themselves. 

The benefits which I derive from using this method are not inconsiderable. Before becoming 
acquainted with it, I purchased every year from three to five hundi-ed dollars' worth of manure, 
which I needed over and above that of my own farm yard, for tlie 200 acres which I have. 
Now I do not purchase one penny's worth, and I can make double the quantity if I choose. 
I have the advantage of producing my manure in the sowing and planting season. I can make 
it more or less strong, more or less fermented, so as to suit the soil and the kind of crop for 
which I want it ; I spread and plough it in while it is perfectly fresh, and consequently in all its 
strength. These are some of the results experienced by me in using Bommer's method of 
manuring land. GERRET KOUWENHOVEN. 

Flatlands, L. I., Sept. 15th, 1843. 

Having seen the effect of Mr. Bommer's Manure on the land of Erastus Dudley, I was 
induced to try a sample of his earth manure. I prepared two small pieces ; on one I applied 
the best of yard manure, and on the other earth manure. I sowed turnips, and the result was 
the earth manure was fully equal. I have since bought the right and made one heap of ve°-e- 
table manure, and from trial consider it equal to the best of yard manure. 

TIMOTHY ROSSITER. 

North Guilford, Ct., ./?ttg. 21, 1843. 



REPORTS AND FAVORABLE OPINIONS OF THE METHOD. 

LEGISLATIVE REPORT. 

MARYLAND HOUSE OF DELEGATES, MARCH 6, 1844. 

Report of the Committee on Agriculture, relative to the Bommer Method of making Manure, 
in obedience to an order of the House of 26fh January. 
The Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred the order submitted by Mr. Calvert, 
on the 26th January, directing them to " report to this House, whether the manure manufac- 
tured under the system known as the Bommer process, is a valuable acquisition to the agricul- 
turists of the State," beg leave to report, that through the politeness of Messrs. Abbett & Co., 



90 APPENDIX. 

of the city of Baltimore, they have been favored with a copy of the new and enlarged edition 
of the Bommer Manure Method, which they have examined with as much attention as their 
time has permitted. 

Having no personal knowledge upon the subject, the committee have also resorted to such 
other sources of information as have come within their reach. Taking into view the materials 
used in the preparation of the manure, the advantages resulting from the use that may be made 
of it in various states of decomposition to suit different crops, the certainty of having all 
obnoxious seeds destroyed by the high degree of heat developed during fermentation, they can 
not hesitate in recommending it to the attention of the farmers of Maryland. 

The right to use the Method, in the preparation of manure, being secured by letters patent, 
nothing in relation to it, beyond an expression of opinion, will be expected from the committee. 
They have appended hereto an extract from the preface to the book, as also several other 
extracts and certificates from practical men, upon the subject. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

D. W. NAILL, ROBT. GHISELIN, 

LYDE GRIFFITH, WARFORD MANN, 

DANIEL STULL, PHIIJP POULTNEY. 



The following commendatory notice is from Professor Eu Ives, M. D., one of the Vice 
Presidents of the United States Agricultural Society : — 

I have examined the pamphlet of Mr. Bommer on the subject of manufacturing manure. 
His method is founded on correct philosophical principles, agreeable to those recently advanced 
by Liebig. If the farmers can be induced to purchase the right, and thoroughly execute his 
plan of making manure, in my opinion it will very much increase the value of their farms. 

E. IVES. 

New Haven, Feb. 11. 

From the Trans, of the N. Y. Agricultural Society, Prize Essay on the Preparation ani Use of 

Manures, by Willis Gaylord. 

Eommer's patent manure is only compost made ia a scientific and accurate manner, every 
part of the process so managed as to produce a perfect fermentation, without the loss of any of 
the valuable parts of the constituents used. 



"^w».i. .1^ 11 ^ .^ 




NEW EDITION, 



REVISED AND CORRECTED, 



OF THE IMFROVED 



BOMMEE METHOD 



FOR MAKING 



MANURE; 

SECURED BY PATENT IN THE UNITED STATES: 

EXAMINED AND APPROVED, AS TO ITS SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES, 
BY 

PROFESSOR ELI IVES, M. D., 

One of the Vice-Presidents of the General Society of Agriculture ; 
AND 

AS TO ITS ADVANTAGES AND PRACTICAL USEFULNESS, 

BY 

THE SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



GEORGE BOMMER, 

Proprietor of the Copy-Right, aiid of the Patent-Right. 



^-JNEW YORK: 
STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & SAVAGE, 13 CHAMBERS ST. 



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